Today, everyone's talking about a penguin. Hallowe'en is behind us, Fireworks night has been and gone - now the newly-extended advent season has been heralded by the squawk (do they squawk?) of a small, flightless bird. Or rather, the new John Lewis Christmas ad has arrived, and it's a beauty.
Suspend for a moment your concerns about Christmas consumerism. Suppress - for these next few minutes only - your disapproval at John Lewis' apparent refusal to pay its cleaners a living wage. Stop being grumpy because your bus was late this morning. Pour a mug of virtual cocoa, sit back in your chair, and allow the glory of this uber-viral miniature masterpiece to wash over you.
The John Lewis Christmas advert has, quite bizarrely, become one of the fixtures and fittings of the modern festive season. Like red-cupped coffee and a shock-filled episode of Downton Abbey, the ads have become both a phenomenon in their own right, and a signpost in the cultural calendar. Where previous generations lit candles or counted down chocolates (and of course, many of us still do), these pieces of cultural furniture help us to anticipate and marvel at Christmas - whichever version of it you subscribe to.
With my expectations already sky-high then, I clicked on the already-viral video (this is a TV advert, remember, but that's decreasingly important). Maybe it's because I'm a dad with a boy of about this lad's age, or maybe it's because I'm a pathetic old softy, but it moved me. I'm not sure there's a hugely deep message in there about the nature of our humanity (though inescapably it'll form part of 10,000 sermon illustrations over the next two months), but the simple idea that our gifts should have meaning, not just material value, is immediately resonant.
British culture is terribly, increasingly cynical. We love to critique, find fault and pull things down; grumpy scepticism is seen as a virtue. The wonderful thing about the John Lewis ad is that - for the most part - it simply over-rides all that for a moment. It invites us to allow ourselves a moment of imagination, and childlike wonder. There's not enough of those things in the world. So today, thank God for Monty the penguin.
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And since penguins are going to dominate the conversation everywhere today, it doesn't seem right to ignore one of the greatest penguin-based things that has ever happened. Benedict Cumberbatch can't say 'penguin.' Enjoy this and keep smiling today. Merry Christmas.
Martin Saunders is an author, screenwriter and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. Follow him on Twitter @martinsaunders
