This Year's Most Anti-Consumerist Christmas Ad Is Also One of Its Loveliest

Edeka, of course, had the most notoriously dark Christmas ad of 2015, a spot that went viral around the world. But 2016's edition manages to remain relatively straightforward, while still delivering a delightful twist ending.

It opens with—and remains dedicated, for the most part, to—familiar scenes of holiday season bustle and stress. Parents dash around trying to buy gifts, and cook, and clean, and shovel the walk, put on their winter tires, and tend to other tedious business.

All the while, their children wait around, bored out of their minds, wishing someone would play with them, and getting no satisfaction.