This holiday season, most American commercials will not even attempt to pretend to convey the true meaning of the holidays. They’d rather show customers high-fiving retail clerks after spending thousands of dollars on electronics during Black Friday or someone receiving a brand new vehicle which cost more that most people make within a year.
Then along comes a German grocery store chain called Edeka, who made one of the best and most heartwarming commercials of any season. The video began with an older retiree who arrived back to his home with his dog. He checked his voicemail, and there was a message from his daughter. She informed him that she and the children won’t be able to make it home for Christmas that year. At the end of the message, the children cheerfully told their Grandpa “Merry Christmas, Papa!”
The elderly man solemnly made Christmas dinner for one. And he ate alone dressed in his finest clothes. The commercial goes through a heartbreaking montage of three Christmas dinners where the elderly man dined alone.
They then fast-forward to another holiday season which this time featured his three adult children. All three seemed very busy, engulfed in their fast-paced professional careers. However, each sibling received news that stopped them where they stood and sent them into tears. In the next scene, the elderly man’s children grimly began their journey home, they packed their clothes slowly, weighed down by a deep burden of guilt and loss.
They cut to a scene with the siblings and their families gathered together dressed in black just outside of their the elderly man’s home. His family stood together heartbroken as they consoled one another while they prepared to enter a place they had not paid a visit to in years.
The family stepped through the door of the elderly man’s home. They were quickly overwhelmed by the flooding memories mixed with a cascade of emotions. However, their grief turned to confusion as they walked into the dining room which had candles lit on a table set for dinner. That’s when the elderly man stepped out from the kitchen, and announced to his family.
“How else could I have brought you together? Mmh?
Tears of grief quickly became tears of joy and relief as the elderly man’s family came together to embrace him, and they celebrated the holidays as one big happy family.
Please share this warm story of love with those you hold dear and remember what’s most important not this but every season. Enjoy the video.
