I watched the Waitrose 2025 Christmas advert and one thing left me speechless

This year's Christmas advert for Waitrose is definitely one to remember. It stars rom-rom queen Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson, who is perhaps best known for starring in The Celebrity Traitors. The mini-movie follows the blossoming romance between Keira, who plays herself, and Joe's character, Phil, who fall for each other at the Waitrose cheese counter purchasing Sussex Charmer Mature Cheddar in the build-up to December 25.

The Richard Curtis-approved advert has everything a festive romance film needs. It's sprinkled with humour, sadness, warmth, and copious amounts of fairy lights and fake snow. The advert was brilliant, especially the casting. One of the biggest Christmas movies of all time is Love Actually, starring Knightley, and The Celebrity Traitors has been an enormous success, with Wilkinson coming across as a reputable and genuine person. They are the unlikely combination we didn't realise we needed this Christmas.

While the storyline, set design, and script worked wonderfully, there was one significant element which surprised me. The Waitrose team revealed there would be four different trailers on top of the four-minute feature-length advertisement.

At least three of them starred Knightley and Wilkinson, who will also be appearing on buses and billboards following the main advert's official release today. One even pays homage to Love Actually (the carol singing cue card scene to be precise).

A great deal of effort has been put into the advertisement. I also attended the John Lewis 2025 screening, and they decided not to have any celebrities for their annual campaign.

Waitrose has really gone the extra mile - although the advertisers were unable to reveal how much money has been injected into the campaign.

Knightley said: "I love food, and so when I received this script where I get to fall head over heels in love with a shared love of cheese, I couldn't turn it down.

"I adored working on this silly, fun and delicious film with Joe, and I hope those watching it fall in love too."

The Perfect Gift is now available to watch in full on Waitrose's YouTube.