When Words Are Hard to Find: Reflections on the John Lewis Christmas Advert

This year's John Lewis Christmas advert captures something quietly powerful the space that can grow between people who care deeply for one another, and the courage it takes to bridge it.

A teenage boy and his father move around each other with a gentle distance. There is no obvious conflict, just the silence that can settle when words are hard to find. The boy leaves a gift, a record, wrapped simply, with a post-it note in place of a tag. When the father finds it and plays the music, something unspoken begins to shift. No grand gestures, no perfect words, just a moment of shared understanding.

The advert offers a tender reminder that connection doesn’t always arrive neatly or easily. Relationships can hold both love and distance, and reconnection often starts with something small, a gesture, a note, a willingness to listen.

Moments like this can also touch deeper places within us, sometimes bringing to the surface memories of our own families, or relationships that feel more complex or unresolved. It can be meaningful to notice what arises, to pause and acknowledge it with gentleness.

Therapy can be a space to explore these quieter emotional echoes a place to understand what distance or closeness means for each of us, and how we might reach towards connection in our own lives.