LET’S BE HONEST, Christmas ads are one of the greatest things about the entire season.

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Even when you can no longer stand hearing I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday and would rather die than fight your way through another throng of festive shoppers, the ads broadcast across December always manage to ignite child-like excitement among most of us.

And to be fair, the vast majority of us have a favourite.

So, without further ado, here are – in no particular order – 10 of the best Christmas ads; don’t @ us.

1. ESB 

If you’re a child of the 80s or 90s, you’ll know this commercial all too well.

And yes, that is TV3′s Alan Hughes looking particularly dapper on his return to the family homestead at Christmas.

2. An Post

OK, it might remind you that you’ve dropped the ball on sending stuff to your mates in Oz in time for 25 December, but it also brings you right back to the last day of primary school when the caretaker wheeled the TV in and your teacher cracked out The Snowman.

3. Budweiser

It’s the type of Christmas we only saw in films.

We mean, it actually looks like Kevin McCallister might pop out at any minute.

4. Denny

It’s so simple yet so evocative.

Who among us hasn’t cycled in circles around the kitchen table while our parents sweated over the Christmas breakfast and hoped to Christ you wouldn’t cut the legs out from beneath them?

5. Kellogg’s

We couldn’t fully relate because we never got anything as fancy as strawberries on our Cornflakes, but the notion that there was a chance we might meet the man himself if we played our cards right was too much for most of us to handle.

6. Penneys

Ah look, he was as cute as a button; enough said.

7. Boots

Fine, we might hate ourselves for falling for such schmaltz, but damn it, if Christmas isn’t the time to do it, when is?

8. Guinness

We know we said these ads were in no particular order, but this is up there among the greats.

Show us someone who doesn’t love the Guinness Christmas ad, and we’ll show you a spoofer.

9. Coca- Cola

If you were a kid of the 90s, you’ll know that the moment the Coca-Cola ad landed, the festive season had officially begun.

10. John Lewis

Yes, you were crying over a lovelorn penguin; what of it?

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