It is Christmas Eve. A woman wanders around a shop, frantically searching for a present for her sister. It is not going well. Then she takes a tumble through a clothes rack and enters her own private NarniaThe imaginary land of magic people and animals invented by author CS Lewis.. 

She skips back and forth through time, recounting the highs and lows of her life with her sister. There are teenage fights, an ice-skating trip, a birth. When she returns to the shop, she is able to buy the perfect present. 

This is the plot of The Gifting Hour, John Lewis's new Christmas shopping advert.

For almost two decades, the department store's Christmas adverts have been the subject of British national conversation.¹ 

Other retailers bring turkey and tinsel. But John Lewis prefers a less obvious approach. Their first film, in 2007, for example, has been compared with the innovative lamp sequence that opens PixarAn American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. films.

A new formula was set with 2011's The Long Wait. It starred a young boy impatiently counting down the days to Christmas to a wispy cover version of a well-known song. It ends with a heartwarming twist: he is desperate to give presents, not receive them.

They have since become more daring. 2012 had a snowman journey to find his lost love, 2015 saw a girl befriend the man on the Moon, 2021 starred an alien visitor and last year ended with a giant Venus flytrapThe Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a carnivorous plant. vomiting out presents.

Some have saluted this year's back to basics approach. Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir was brought to tears. She writes that the shop "has finally broken free from the pious hokum" with "an emotional celebration of sororalTo be sisterly or sister-like. bonds".

The adverts are quirky. But they are also very sentimental. They focus on family, friendship and belonging. They rarely feature actual Christmas shopping, the very thing they exist to sell.

The commercialisation of Christmas is a touchy business. Every year, commentators bemoan that a once-religious festival has instead become focused around buying gluttonous heaps of food and breaking the bank with expensive presents.

Yet some think that this picture is too simple. The Christian faith that gave us Christmas celebrates the act of gift-giving. According to the Bible, "God loveth a cheerful giver". The Prayer of St Francis, a popular Christian text, famously says: "for it is in giving that one receives".

Others note that the Christmas we celebrate now has evolved hand in hand with consumerismSociety's obsession with acquiring consumer goods.. Historian Ruth McClelland-Nugent says: "The popularisation of Christmas in the United States begins with advertising." The popular image of Santa Claus comes from 1930s Coca-Cola adverts.

Christmas shopping also helps the economy. It creates numerous jobs.² Some small businesses rely on a Christmas windfallAn unexpected, unearned, or sudden gain or advantage. to survive the year. It also boosts tourism as people travel to meet their families.

It is a difficult time for retailers. John Lewis has lost money three years in a row. A bumper year of Christmas shopping could save the high street - and stop town centres becoming abandoned wastelands. This might be a true act of giving.

Is Christmas shopping a virtue?

Yes: Most people appreciate giving and receiving gifts. But the presents do not emerge from thin air. All acts of giving stem from buying and selling. We should stop pretending otherwise.

No: A virtuous act is one we choose to do. But society has forced us to shop at Christmas. It has even bred children to be angry and disappointed if they do not receive the expensive gifts they want.

Or... We live under capitalism. Almost everything has been commercialised: from education to medicine to water. Christmas shopping is not a virtue or a vice. It is just part of the world we live in.