How to score a Christmas ad

Every year, the same question comes up in commercial production: how do you make a Christmas ad sound Christmassy while still standing out from the noise? 

Music is central to that challenge, and working with a composer can bring enormous value to a campaign. But a few simple creative learnings and process choices can make the whole journey far smoother.

It sounds simple, but the little things like timing can dictate how smoothly everything goes. 

So at what point should you bring a composer into a Christmas campaign?

For me, the best moment to be brought onto a project is when the creative team has a clear brief and a first offline edit to work to. At that stage, everyone has a feel for the pace of the edit and the tone of the spot, and I can get into the nitty gritty of helping to shape the narrative through music. It’s striking how often I’m brought on too early, usually for understandable reasons. You’d think that more time for development equals a better result, but writing music and then retrospectively trying to fit it to an edit almost always causes more problems than it solves.

Writing music for a Christmas ad is a difficult balancing act because nostalgia and tradition inevitably come into play.

Of course, the opposite extreme isn’t ideal either. You don’t want to be in a situation where you have 24 hours to write something and only a couple of days for revisions. Somewhere between those two points is where the work really benefits. 

Whether a music supervision company is involved or not, timing, clarity of vision and frequent communication are always key.

Above: The M&S Christmas ad, built around an orchestral reinterpretation of Chris Rea’s Driving Home for Christmas.

Sleigh bells in moderation

Writing music for a Christmas ad is a difficult balancing act because nostalgia and tradition inevitably come into play. It is, after all, what Christmas is all about. But the last thing anyone wants is for a beautifully shot, carefully crafted film to end up sounding twee or predictable, like a Hallmark Channel TV movie.

There are a few things I try to do to avoid that. A strong, memorable sense of melody or theme can help a composition stand out and feel like it really belongs to the film it accompanies. If the instrumentation features Christmassy sounds, I make sure they are mixed subtly and tastefully. You don’t want to beat your audience over the head with sleigh bells - they can really start to grate. 

The last thing anyone wants is for a beautifully shot, carefully crafted film to end up sounding twee or predictable.

Above all, staying close to the pacing and shape of the edit, and emphasising moments of humour or emotion, will always make the music feel bespoke rather than like a library track plastered on as an afterthought.

Above: Boots’ festive film, a modern fairytale riff on Puss in Boots with a Medieval-inspired musical palette.

Three wise scores

This year I worked on three very different Christmas ads and each one needed a different musical approach. What tied them together was something simple. I try to let the creative itself lead the way. Turning up with a rigid view of a Christmas score and trying to impose it on the film is never helpful.

Argos wanted something contemporary and electronic for the first half of the spot, almost brooding. The score for the film Drive was referenced. That set up a nice rug pull when the reveal comes and the music gives way to a big band version of Jingle Bells. The joke only works if the set-up is committed to properly.

Turning up with a rigid view of a Christmas score and trying to impose it on the film is never helpful.

For Boots, a magical, modernised retelling of Puss in Boots, the creatives liked the idea of leaning into the Medieval, fairytale genre. That allowed the music to stand out from more generic Christmas scores as we had room to experiment with old instruments like lute and cor anglais.

And for M&S, the entire spot was riffing off Chris Rea’s Driving Home for Christmas, so I put together an orchestral cover. The task there was about making the track fit the edit comfortably, dipping in and out to punctuate Dawn French’s gags and her fairy sidekick’s interventions.

Each project required a different musical identity, but all of them found their sense of Christmas spirit through what the story and the characters needed, not through a checklist of festive tropes.