You know the countdown to Christmas is officially on when the annual John Lewis Christmas advert lands. And, 10 days ahead of their usual release date, the ad is leaving a stream of tearful midlifers in its wake.
The John Lewis marketing team must've had a decent amount of former 90s ravers among their numbers; the middle-aged who sweated it out on the dancefloors in the days before mobile phones ruined everything and everyone stopped living in the moment - because this ad is simply made for us, those people of a certain age.
The ad kicks off with a furtive teenage boy buying his dad a record for Christmas. Not just any record, it's a vinyl copy Alison Limerick's Where Love Lives - what a tune, and what a realisation for dad that his son is now old enough to get him as a person.
As the vinyl is carefully placed in the record player and the needle drops, the dad is immediately transported back in time to a packed dancefloor. Former inhabitants of the 90s and early noughties, those who lived through these freeing and hedonist generations, will teleport right back with him.
With everyone dancing around him, the dad has flashbacks to his youth - the days where you could literally dance like no-one was watching.
Even though people were, indeed around, the fear that hordes of people could be filming you on their phones, and the creeping dread of which uninhibited footage of you could make its way to social media, was entirely absent. We miss those days.
Even the most hardened would struggle not to have at least a catch in their throat when the dad is taken through flashbacks of his son's life, as well as his own. His son, no longer the baby he cradles in his arms, is on the cusp of being off to make his own life, and their relationship has fundamentally changed.
There's something morbidly death-like about these scenes. These rapid reminders of moments that have passed might be something you expect to happen when your life is about to end.
While that's not something that automatically screams, "Christmas!", it does nod to a lot of what the festive season can be about - looking back on a life that's passing in the blink of an eye and reliving those moments so clearly, you could reach out and touch them. Christmas has a way of making those memories smack you in the face with one heck of a punch.
The dad's Aftersun moment (his flashback seems to be a very clear bow to the 2022 coming-of-age drama starring Paul Mescal,) also stands as a firm reminder that so much connection in life has been lost.
Us midlifers, we once lived for our friends, lived for the easy connection we had with them. Now we watch our children forge a new way of living where they'd probably call their phone their bestie, and any sense of community around us falls away.
We crave the touch and feel of vinyl, something physical instead of living in a streaming world where everything you need comes with the touch of a button. We prefer the touch of actual people.
There appears to be the same, immediately visceral reaction to the ad from many others, judging by the comments made on the John Lewis Instagram page.
One person wrote, "As a 50 year old Gen X 90's raver with a teenage son, this is so bloody perfect," while another added, "Ok this got me completely, tears streaming. You have hit us parents of teens in a beautiful way."
Another commenter summed it up perfectly by saying, "Oh my goodness - the tears on a Tuesday morning! If you are a certain age (and yes at 49, I’m most definitely THAT age) and especially if you are a parent. You’ll feel it. The nostalgia of the song, and all the feels."
It might not be the advert we expected, or even needed, but it certainly nails the sucker punch of children that grow up - and the stark realisation that life is short and our memories are important, but living in the moment can be just as powerful.
