LL Bean Paints White Christmas on Cozy Canvas

Every scene in "Making Christmas," a glimpse into one family's holiday, belongs in a frame on a department store mantelpiece. It's a painfully pretty picture of someone else's life -- never mine, maybe yours; you can almost touch the glossiness.

I like the scene where The Men walk in with the presents, then there's coloured paper everywhere, then this short gorgeous shot of a doe-eyed freckled boy. Moments like that make an otherwise-discreet* ad priceless -- part of the narrative of a viewer's season.

All that lux, casual idleness is punctuated by a page number -- "Page 55," "Page 49" -- printed in LL Bean's catalogue typeface. Nice tie-in.

By GSD&M Idea City with help from Sticks+Stones. Background track is Valley Winter Song by Fountains of Wayne. More fun facts here.

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* In this case, "discreet" is an understatement. If the pitch of this spot were just one note lower, it'd be for Kohl's.