‘Tis the season for Christmas adverts – and one dark horse is giving all the ‘big boy’ supermarkets a run for ther money.

Whether sentimental, funny, or mini cinematic masterpieces, festive ads have taken over our TV screens as the countdown to the holidays begins.

John Lewis surprised shoppers this year with their offering; the tale of a boy who plants a ravenous venus fly trap Christmas tree called Snapper, while M&S sees Hannah Waddingham rebelling against some annual festive traditions. Aldi, meanwhile, brought back Kevin the Carrot, who receives the cheese keys to the Christmas dinner factory.

But there is one advert that stands above the rest, time and time again – and it comes courtesy of a DIY store from a small town in mid-Wales. The sweet two-minute clip from Hafod Hardware in Rhayader, Powys, Wales, took just one day to film in 2019 and features the then-two-year-old Arthur Jones.

Arthur’s proud dad Tom Jones, whose family owns the independent shop, and film-maker friend Josh Holdaway, filmed and edited the video for less than £100.

The video begins with little Arthur getting out of bed before donning his apron and carrying out a day’s ‘work’ at the family-run hardware store. Sweeping the floors, polishing the counter and replacing stocks on the shelves are all part of his duties, as the busy boy is also on hand to deal with customers – all with a friendly smile and big thumbs up.

The commercial – which features four generations of Tom’s family – features a cover of Alphaville’s 1984 hit ‘Forever Young’, performed by American singer-songwriter Andrea von Kampen.

Proud dad Tome said when it launched: “The aim is to make it the best Christmas advert of the year. The comments we’ve had so far have been amazing.

“Making this video with my son has been an experience I will cherish for a lifetime. They say never work with animals or children but he was a joy. He’s such a bright boy and I would be lying if I said it was difficult to get him to perform on screen.

“He often comes to visit me in the shop, so weren’t really asking him to do anything he hadn’t done before. Whenever I watch the advert, it makes me well up with pride.

“Forever Young was the song I really wanted. I asked Andrea if she could do a cover and she was happy to do it. She recorded it in a studio and paid $100 for a sound engineer. I said we’d pay – so that’s all the advert has cost us. She’s got an incredible voice, it’s perfect for the advert.

“All three adverts touch upon the significance of family at Christmas and so it was extremely important to me that Arthur had a role in each one. Showing the transition of him as a young baby in the first advert, through to the young man he is today, really does capture the essence of what we have been trying to create. We are told every year that Christmas is for kids, but there’s nothing stopping us all from being big kids at Christmas.

“All the time, people are coming into the shop and asking us about our Christmas adverts. Even strangers pop in to say they’ve seen them. People are always asking whether we were doing another one this year. It’s hard to say no, we feel obliged to do it. The locals love them. It’s nice to think we can put a lot of smiles on people’s faces in the community. It’s always nice to do something for the town.

“People always compare our videos to the likes of John Lewis and we try to get the same message across as the multi-million pound adverts do. But there is an underlying message. We are just a small independent shop in Mid Wales trying to compete with the big boys like John Lewis and M&S. We’ve shown that it can be done on a very small budget.”

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