Apple’s Handmade Holiday Ad 2025 Keeps It Real with Singing Forest Puppets

A ragtag gang of slightly dishevelled, rumpled forest pals stage a musical showstopper in a wintery wood. Apple’s holiday ad is a cosy, crafty delight as director Mark Molloy marshals a cast of puppets and their blue-suited support staff to craft a film that puts the hand into handmade.

‘A Critter Carol’ sees the creature choir perform a cover of ‘Friends’, a song from Flight of the Conchords duo Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie – which they shoot, of course, on a lost iPhone 17 Pro. Created by TBWA\Media Arts Lab (Apple’s long-term creative collaborator) and produced by SMUGGLER, the film was shot in Prague with production service company Unit+Sofa.

Apple’s festive campaigns often have an emphasis on in-camera craft; for example, the Emmy-winning stop-motion animated Fuzzy Feelings. However, this year’s outing follows hot on the heels of Apple TV and Apple Movies’ glorious visual identities, created using a carousel of glass apple icons. As AI-generated content starts to fill our feeds, Apple’s in-camera craft is taking on a premium shine. Nine adorable creatures may take centre stage in the ad, but human creativity and craft are, purposely it seems, the real stars of the show.

Indeed the typography for the campaign has also been crafted by hand, using a woodblock print technique for each individual letter.

“I wanted to embrace the tactile nature of puppetry… I was really keen to go back to craftsmanship,” says SMUGGLER director Mark Molloy. “There’s a reality to how we built these creatures but also how we brought them to life, that is imperfect.”

This year’s behind-the-scenes film, featuring critters and puppeteers, is as compelling as the ad itself. In it, we hear from the production designer Andy Keller, cinematographer Joost van Gelder and lead puppeteer Tim Cherry-Jones. It shows the magic of the art form as the inanimate animals suddenly become believably alive, despite the visible cluster of puppeteers around them. The making-of also reaffirms the ‘shot on iPhone’ nature of the commercial and, crucially, there’s lots of fun to be had as the stars of the show reveal their true diva natures.