Christmas is a magical time. It’s a popular trope that’s seen in a lot of Christmas themed advertising, and it allows brands to go beyond the scope of ‘reality’ to tell us some fascinating, out of the world stories that can be enjoyed by one and all. We’ve seen it with ‘Paddington & The Christmas Visitor’ by Marks & Spencer, we’ve seen it with the Nicki Minaj starrer ‘A Magical Holiday’ by H&M, and we’ve seen it with ‘#MozTheMonster’ by John Lewis.

Here’s another one to add to that list.

‘Tonttu’ (translated from Finnish by Google as ‘Brownie’) comes to us from discount supermarket chain Lidl’s Finland operations. Conceptualized by Folk Finland and directed by Finnish filmmaker Pete Riski, it hits all the right notes for a Christmas commercial, sprinkling lots of magic through a warm story that will make one long for family, food, and friends.

Yes, critics may point out the story’s similarity with the story of ‘Moz The Monster’. At a glance, both stories show us a single child’s friendship with an unexpected visitor that goes unnoticed by everyone else, only to end with some Christmas magic. What this Finnish commercial does really well, however, is to subliminally showcase the joy of sharing, another aspect of Christmas that somehow, tends to get overlooked in the season’s advertising.

Well done, Lidl.