M&S Christmas Advert 2026: James Norton Stars as Undercover Santa in ‘The Home of Christmas’
Marks & Spencer has launched its 2026 Christmas advert, The Home of Christmas, with Happy Valley star James Norton playing an undercover Santa who shaves off his beard and swaps his red suit for a Christmas jumper. The three-minute film arrived on the retailer’s social channels on Friday 6 November 2026 and made its television debut during ITV’s This Morning at 10.15am the same day.
The launch lands in the middle of the annual Christmas advert battle, three days after John Lewis unveiled its own 2026 film, Gloria and Pickles. Within hours, the M&S Christmas advert 2026 was trending on Google in the UK, with viewers singling out Norton’s towel scene and the film’s soundtrack.
M&S Christmas Advert 2026 — Quick Reference Summary
| Detail | What we know |
|---|---|
| Campaign | The Home of Christmas |
| Launched | Friday 6 November 2026, on M&S social channels (Instagram and YouTube) |
| Television debut | ITV’s This Morning, 10.15am, Friday 6 November 2026 |
| Santa | James Norton, playing an undercover Father Christmas |
| Mrs Claus | Lucy Punch, who persuades Santa to leave the North Pole |
| Soundtrack | Katherine Jenkins singing a reworked Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is a Place on Earth |
| Film length | Three minutes |
| First since | 2017 — the first M&S Christmas campaign to unite Food, Fashion, Home and Beauty |
A Santa Who Shaves Off His Beard and Heads to London
The film opens at the North Pole, inside the Claus home, where Mrs Claus — played by Amandaland star Lucy Punch — persuades her husband to experience Christmas for himself instead of delivering it to everyone else. Santa, played by Norton, shaves off his bushy beard, strips down to a towel, and changes into a Christmas jumper before setting off unrecognised.
Once in London, the newly youthful Santa moves through the season as an ordinary person: getting dressed up, preparing the Christmas table, buying gifts and decorating a home. The joke of the film is that nobody recognises him without the beard and the red suit, and the moments that follow are built around the food, traditions and shared time that M&S wants the campaign to stand for.
Norton said of the role: “It’s not every day you get asked to play Santa, let alone a Santa who immediately shaves off his beard! M&S has been such a familiar part of Christmas for as long as I can remember, so getting to be part of its Christmas campaign feels really special.”
The towel scene has done most of the early work online. Clips of Norton in just a towel spread across social media within hours of the launch, and the moment has already been picked up by entertainment coverage, with Radio Times calling it the talking point of this year’s festive advertising season.
Why M&S Folded Four Departments Into One Campaign
The campaign matters to M&S beyond the jokes. As The Grocer reports, it is the first time since 2017 that the retailer has brought its Food, Fashion, Home and Beauty businesses together in a single Christmas campaign, and the film gives each of those departments a part in Santa’s journey through the season.
M&S says the campaign was shaped by customer research showing that shoppers value time spent together at Christmas above all else, and the film is built around that idea: the magic of the season comes from the people around the table, not from the North Pole. The retailer’s own numbers underline the scale of the festive trade it is chasing — it sells 1,800 Christmas jumpers every day during the festive season and a pair of pyjamas every four seconds in the run-up to Christmas.
The campaign will run across television, video on demand, cinema, outdoor advertising, social media, radio, digital display and print. Its physical centrepiece is the Pantheon store on Oxford Street, which is being transformed into a “Home of Christmas” bringing the retailer’s full festive offer under one roof. M&S completed the transformation of the almost 100,000 sq ft flagship store in July, bringing food, fashion, home and beauty together across four floors.
Small details in the film are already being picked apart by shoppers. In the opening scene, Mrs Claus is shown in bed wearing a Cotton Sateen Stripe Long Sleeve Revere Pyjama Set, priced at £35 — a product that was trending within hours of the advert going live.
Katherine Jenkins Gives a Festive Classic a New Voice
The soundtrack is a specially recorded version of Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is a Place on Earth, performed by Katherine Jenkins, who also makes a cameo appearance in the film. Jenkins worked with producer Fraser T Smith and composer Tom Howe on the recording, which was released as a single alongside the campaign on Friday.
The choice follows a familiar pattern for Christmas advertising, where the song often becomes as talked about as the film itself. Jenkins’ version runs through Santa’s journey, from the North Pole to the London streets, and it is the element of the advert most likely to outlive the campaign itself.
The Christmas Advert Battle: How M&S Measures Up Against John Lewis
John Lewis fired the starting gun on this year’s festive advertising on Tuesday 3 November 2026, with Gloria and Pickles, its 20th Christmas advert. The three-minute film, created by Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by Lucy Forbes, stars Dame Kristin Scott Thomas as Gloria, a grandmother struggling to find the right gift for her grandchildren, alongside a vintage wooden pull-along dog named Pickles, voiced by Paul Whitehouse. Its soundtrack is a new cover of The Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want by Sam Fender.
The two films could hardly be more different in tone. John Lewis leans into sentiment and the anxiety of choosing the right present, under the tagline “Don’t give up on giving”. M&S goes for humour and star power, trading a tearjerker for a shirtless Santa and a joke about being recognised. Early reaction suggests M&S has the more shareable moment, while John Lewis holds the more emotional story — and the contest between them will play out in viewing figures and social mentions over the coming weeks.
The rivalry is not new. John Lewis has built its reputation on Christmas commercials over two decades, while M&S has often leaned on its food advertising at the festive season. This year M&S has decided to challenge that dominance head on, and by releasing its film last among the major retailers it has given itself the final word of the launch week. For a closer look at the other big television moment of the week, read our report on the Big Brother 2026 winner, and for another new release opening this week, see our piece on the Being Heumann film opening in cinemas today.
A Comeback Christmas After the 2025 Cyberattack
The campaign also arrives at a telling moment for M&S. The retailer was hit by a major cyberattack around Easter 2025 that forced it to halt online orders for about six weeks, emptied shelves and disrupted logistics. M&S estimated the attack would cost around £300 million in operating profit, partly offset by about £100 million recovered through insurance.
Against that backdrop, a confident, big-budget Christmas campaign carries extra weight. It is a public statement that the business is back to trading normally and willing to spend on the festive season — and with food, fashion, home and beauty folded into one film, it is also a showcase for the combined offer the company has been building at its flagship stores.
Whether the advert wins the season outright will be judged in the weeks ahead, in sales figures and in how often the towel scene is still being shared. For now, M&S has the most talked-about image of the Christmas advertising season — and a Santa nobody recognised.
Frequently asked questions about the M&S Christmas advert 2026
When did the M&S Christmas advert 2026 come out? The film launched on M&S’s social channels on Friday 6 November 2026 and made its television debut during ITV’s This Morning at 10.15am the same day.
Who plays Santa in the M&S Christmas advert? Happy Valley actor James Norton plays an undercover Father Christmas who shaves off his beard and swaps his red suit for a Christmas jumper.
Who plays Mrs Claus? Amandaland star Lucy Punch plays Mrs Claus, who persuades Santa to leave the North Pole and experience Christmas for himself.
What is the song in the M&S Christmas advert 2026? Katherine Jenkins performs a reworked version of Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is a Place on Earth, which was released as a single on the day the campaign launched.
What is the M&S Christmas campaign called? The campaign is titled The Home of Christmas, and it is the first time since 2017 that M&S has united its Food, Fashion, Home and Beauty departments in one Christmas campaign.
Myth: M&S copied John Lewis this year. The two films were made independently and tell very different stories — John Lewis’s Gloria and Pickles is a sentimental story about gift-giving, while M&S’s film is a comedy built around a Santa who goes undercover. John Lewis launched first, on 3 November, and M&S followed on 6 November.
Myth: James Norton is topless for the whole advert. The towel scene is one brief moment near the start of the three-minute film. For most of the advert, Santa is fully dressed in a Christmas jumper, a leather jacket and a red scarf as he moves through London.
