--- title: Elton John gets his first piano in John Lewis's Christmas ad description: The UK store's annual Christmas ad marks the start of the holiday season canonical: https://time.com/5455715/john-lewis-christmas-advert-2018/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-15T15:31:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:02.369Z og:title: The New John Lewis Christmas Ad Is Here to Warm Your Heart og:description: The UK store's annual Christmas ad marks the start of the holiday season og:url: https://time.com/5455715/john-lewis-christmas-advert-2018/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e42fe7954c11a7f/69893f3b656a3f7cb2bd5fe8/johnlewischristmasad2018.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1572 og:image:height: 884 og:image:alt: JohnLewisChristmasAd2018 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The New John Lewis Christmas Ad Is Here to Warm Your Heart twitter:description: The UK store's annual Christmas ad marks the start of the holiday season twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e42fe7954c11a7f/69893f3b656a3f7cb2bd5fe8/johnlewischristmasad2018.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The New John Lewis Christmas Commercial Is Here to Warm All of the Hearts > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 15, 2018 3:31 PM UTC  by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 15, 2018 3:31 PM UTC The Christmas season doesn’t really kick off in the U.K. until the annual John Lewis Christmas commercial is unveiled. Each year, the British department store puts out a heart-warming, tear-jerking ad that is so chock-full of the holiday spirit just one viewing would make the Grinch’s heart grow three sizes in one day. This year’s ad is no different as it tells the story of Sir [Elton John](http://time.com/collection/2017-time-100/4736215/james-corden/)‘s being given his very first piano, as a Christmas present, of course. The story begins in present day with the [Elton John](http://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5239433/prince-harry/) we know and love performing on stage. It then works backwards chronologically, taking viewers on a trip to Christmas past ending at the moment where little [Elton](http://time.com/4619850/george-michael-elton-john/) received a very special present—his grandmother’s piano. It was, of course, a gift that changed the entire course of his life. If that poignant moment wasn’t enough of a reminder of the potential power of a really good gift, the ad ends with the slogan “Some gifts are more than just a gift.” While the ad is of course still just an ad, which [_The Telegraph_ notes](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/15/john-lewis-christmas-advert-watch-elton-john-learn-play-piano/) is designed to promote the fact that John Lewis is selling pianos for the first time in 70 years, it’s an excellent reminder that gifts can be powerful things. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5455715/john-lewis-christmas-advert-2018/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5455715/john-lewis-christmas-advert-2018/"},"headline":"The New John Lewis Christmas Commercial Is Here to Warm All of the Hearts","datePublished":"2018-11-15T15:31:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:02.369Z","description":"The UK store's annual Christmas ad marks the start of the holiday season","url":"https://time.com/5455715/john-lewis-christmas-advert-2018/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Advertising","christmas","John Lewis","elton john"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e42fe7954c11a7f/69893f3b656a3f7cb2bd5fe8/johnlewischristmasad2018.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e42fe7954c11a7f/69893f3b656a3f7cb2bd5fe8/johnlewischristmasad2018.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"JohnLewisChristmasAd2018","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5455715/john-lewis-christmas-advert-2018/","name":"The New John Lewis Christmas Commercial Is Here to Warm All of the Hearts"}}]}] ```