Once you have kids, Christmas becomes a pretty magical time. There’s nothing like the way kids’ eyes light up as they revel in the twinkling lights of the tree, or how they squeal with delight when they unwrap gifts scrawled weeks ago on wish lists and letters to Santa.
They’re the kind of moments parents live for, full of simple joy and lasting memories.
British retailer Argos captures that feeling perfectly in a holiday ad released for the Christmas shopping season.
The 3-minute ad plays almost more like a mini-movie, telling the story of a dad, his daughter, and the Christmas dream they share. We see the pajama-clad father at his kitchen table opening up the Argos catalog (much like the Amazon toy catalog the US retail giant mailed out this month, and the Sears and JC Penney catalogs of old). He turns to a page showing a drumset circled in red, presumably by his daughter—who even draws a happy little self-portrait next to the drums.
Dad smiles, and the magic begins.
The 80s classic Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds provides the perfect soundtrack as the dad’s kitchen transforms from suburbia to sold-out stadium stage. Think cabinets flipping into giant speakers, refrigerator and freezer doors blasting open to fill the room with fog, microwave pyrotechnics providing special effects—the creativity is pretty impressive.
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And then, the moment you knew was coming: curious footsteps tiptoe down the staircase as the man’s daughter peers into the dream world. She grins, slides down the piano-staircase, and joins her dad on a second drumset and the crowd goes wild as the two trade some epic drum riffs and huge smiles.
Awwwwww!
There’s even a crowd-surfing bear—Cubby the Curious Bear, expected to be one of this year’s hottest toys, to be exact—confetti, and screaming fans. It’s a fun watch, and a perfect capture of the nostalgia for parents everywhere.
Give the ad a watch for yourself on YouTube:
And though American dads might not have an Argos “Book of Dreams” catalog to page through this Christmas season, we can all identify with the feelings captured in the ad: joy.
Christmastime has a way of reawakening the kid in all of us—even if only for a few weeks—and sharing that with your children? That’s the enduring beauty of the holiday season for dads (and moms!) everywhere.
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