Marks & Spencer launches The Home of Christmas with James Norton as a beardless Santa going incognito

Key Takeaways

• Marks & Spencer has launched The Home of Christmas, its first campaign since 2017 to unite Food, Fashion, Home and Beauty.

• James Norton plays a Santa who shaves off his beard to experience Christmas incognito, with Lucy Punch as Mrs Claus and Katherine Jenkins OBE on the soundtrack.

• Featured products include an Oakham Turkey Crown at £70, a Sequin Dress at £45, an Autograph Pure Cashmere Scarf at £55 and an M&S x Kelly Hoppen candle at £25.

• The film launched on 6 November on Instagram and YouTube before airing on ITV1's This Morning, and the products are available at selected stores and online.

Marks & Spencer has launched The Home of Christmas, a campaign bringing together Food, Fashion, Home and Beauty for the first time since 2017, with James Norton playing a Santa who leaves the North Pole to experience the festivities for himself. Encouraged by Mrs Claus, played by Lucy Punch, he shaves off his beard, swaps his red suit for a Christmas jumper and heads out to enjoy the traditions he usually spends the season making possible for everyone else.

Set to a specially recorded version of Heaven Is a Place on Earth by Katherine Jenkins OBE, the film follows Santa as he joins carol services, plays charades and discovers the joy of pigs in blankets, all without anyone realising who he is. It launched on Instagram and YouTube at 7am on Friday 6th November, before making its television debut during ITV1’s This Morning later that day.

James Norton’s Santa goes undercover to experience Christmas for himself

The story starts with Mrs Claus persuading her husband that it is time to get out and enjoy Christmas, giving Punch a role in setting his adventure in motion. “She gives him the nudge so he can get out there incognito and experience the magic of Christmas for himself,” she explains, while Norton was drawn to the unusual take on the character. “It’s not every day you get asked to play Santa, let alone a Santa who immediately shaves off his beard!”

Once out of his familiar outfit, Santa finds himself taking part in the everyday moments that make up the festive season, from watching a school carol service to gathering around a table of food. Jenkins also appears as the Fete Singer, performing her reworking of Belinda Carlisle’s 1987 hit, which she recorded with producer Fraser T Smith and Ted Lasso composer Tom Howe.

Created by Mother, produced by Smuggler and directed by Shannon Murphy, whose credits include Babyteeth, Killing Eve and Dying for Sex, the film gives each part of the M&S Christmas range a place within Santa’s adventure. Outfits, gifts, decorations and food appear as he moves between celebrations, bringing products including the £70 Oakham Turkey Crown, £45 Sequin Dress, £55 Autograph Pure Cashmere Scarf and £25 M&S x Kelly Hoppen Christmas Joy Candle into the same story.

The Home of Christmas brings four M&S categories into one festive campaign

That approach marks a change from the retailer’s recent Christmas campaigns, which gave different parts of the business their own festive stories. In 2023, Mother’s Love Thismas, Not Thatmas campaign for Clothing and Home featured Hannah Waddingham, Zawe Ashton, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Tan France, while M&S Food’s 2024 campaign followed Dawn French and the M&S Fairy across a separate series of six films.

Last year, Fashion, Home and Beauty moved away from a single blockbuster altogether, releasing short films in three stages from 23rd October. At the time, Marketing Director Sharry Cramond explained that the “different mini content drops” reflected how customers shop in phases throughout the season.

This year, the focus shifts to how those purchases fit together, from choosing an outfit and decorating the house to buying presents and preparing Christmas dinner. As Cramond puts it, “Customers don’t think about Christmas as one meal, one gift or one outfit”, with the combined campaign giving M&S a way to reflect the whole occasion.

The retailer’s latest Customer Pulse findings help explain that emphasis on shared experiences. Some 81% of customers want a special Christmas with loved ones, while 57% plan to spend as much time as possible with family and friends, and 68% say food is what makes the season feel special. M&S also points to its place in those traditions, selling one in three Christmas turkeys in the UK, 1,800 Christmas jumpers a day and nearly three mince pies every second.

M&S brings The Home of Christmas to its Oxford Street flagship

The campaign extends across television, video on demand, cinema, outdoor, radio, digital display, print, influencers and PR, with friends of the brand sharing their festive picks through M&S Love That Lists. Shoppers can also visit a physical Home of Christmas at the Pantheon store on Oxford Street, where the retailer has brought its festive ranges together under one roof.

With almost 100,000 square feet across four floors dedicated to Food, Fashion, Home and Beauty, the flagship gives shoppers a way to explore the same breadth of products shown in the film. Its upper floors were unveiled in July, and the store also serves as a testing ground for features that could be introduced elsewhere in the M&S estate.

The film joins a Christmas advertising season in which familiar faces are being encouraged to step outside and rediscover the occasion. In John Lewis’s Gloria and Pickles, Kristin Scott Thomas plays a grandmother led across London by a talking toy dog in search of a last minute gift. For M&S, it is Santa’s turn to be guided towards a different experience of Christmas, with Mrs Claus making sure he gets to enjoy some of the season himself.

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