Opinion: John Lewis' Christmas advert reminds us to show kindness this Christmas

One tradition that we can do from a distance is watch the Christmas adverts from certain stores. The most anticipated one is the John Lewis ad.

In the past their adverts have included a man who lives on the moon on his own. In the advert a little girl sends him a telescope. Not a ticket back or a way to communicate, but a telescope so that he may see other people having fun in greater clarity and feel even more isolated.

Another year their advert showed us animals jumping up and down on a garden trampoline, letting up glimpse the future after humanity has fallen. Merry Christmas.

Last year’s featured a dragon who accidentally set fire to things in an olden day village where most buildings were made of wood. Forget the Yuletide spirit, health and safety says they should have banished him.

I remember the advert with the boy who woke up early one Christmas to carry a gift to his parents in a cardboard box. He looked like a young Dominic Cummings leaving Downing Street.

For 2020 the advert mixes difference styles of live action and animation to show people being helpful. From a girl helping a boy get a football down from a tree to a lady on a bus fixing someone’s broken spectacles.

It is possibly the nicest message an advert has ever tried to get across. Sure, it’s main purpose is to get us to spend money, but that’s true of all adverts. This one is also saying be kind to people.

Start small. We could try not honking our car horns at people who don’t pull off at light as quickly as we’d like. Try not tutting if someone takes a little bit longer to find their purse at the till.

We could graduate to helping short people reach top shelves and lifting prams upstairs. Be nice, it’s Christmas. Not long till January when we can go back to being grumpy.