It's that time again. We're firmly in Jack Frost's snappy grip, lights are being precariously erected in town centres across the country, and the Christmas ads are rolling out in the breaks of our most-loved shows. One of our favourite of course? Festive stalwarts John Lewis with their tear-jerking, heart-warming finest. These are the five reasons why you're going to be taking a couple of watches of the brand new ad.
1. Meet Sam
He's the cute-as-a-button kid who the ad centres on. He was picked because of the cheeky glint in his eye, and the fact that he's excellent with penguins.
2. Then there's Monty
Sam's best friend. He'll be your p-p-p-pin-up this festive season and is not only going to appear on our TV screens looking super cute, he'll also going to be decorating John Lewis' Christmas windows, inside their grottos (Monty's Den), and on clothing in-store (from onesies to gorgeous ladies jumpers). He's an Adélie penguin, and CGI experts intricately pieced together his movements from nature footage so his every move is as real as you're likely see. There's even a illustrated storybook, and an immersive app voiced by Dermot O'Leary.
3. Real Love
Everyone bought a copy of Lily Allen's Somewhere Only We Know with their Christmas shopping last year. And 2014 will be no different: Tom Odell's rousing piano-heavy re-working of John Lennon's (frankly underloved) Real Love has got number one written all over it.
4. A seasonal shift
Not since that bit in Notting Hill where Hugh Grant wanders solemnly along Portobello Road through the seasons have we loved a sunny-summer-through-leafy-autumn-to-snowy-winter montage, as we do here. And Julia Roberts has got nothing on Monty's special friend Mabel.
5. The tears
You didn't expect to get through this life-affirming, love-extolling, feast of festive humanity without having a cry, did you? If you manage it, you're as cold as ice.
Check out Monty's Christmas above and see if you can hold it together at your desk/ on the bus. Obviously you saw it here first, but the ad will premiere on TV screens this Friday night on Channel 4 in the first Gogglebox break.