What kind of Christmas person are you? The one who wants a country house full of friends, cashmere and questionable dancing? The one who starts playing Mariah Carey in October? Or the one who would happily spend Christmas inside a beautifully animated film? Burberry, Gucci, Dior and Prada have each imagined the festive season in their own way, and this year, luxury Christmas comes with a personality test.
Burberry has gone full English country house, and frankly, it looks like a party worth attending. For Wrapped in Burberry: Celebrating 170 Years, director Harmony Korine takes us to Longleat House in Wiltshire, where Pierce Brosnan and Fiona Shaw welcome a guest list that includes Cara Delevingne, Dwyane Wade, Gabrielle Union, Nico Parker, Dylan Brosnan, Kim Min-ha and Wu Lei.
There’s golf buggy racing, brisk country walks, party games and gift swapping, before the night builds to a party beneath an enormous disco ball. Sylvester and Patrick Cowley’s ‘Do You Wanna Funk?’ provides the soundtrack, Brosnan hits the dance floor, and Shaw ends up sofa-bound. Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath, even makes a cameo.
Chief Creative Officer Daniel Lee says: “We wanted to celebrate 170 years of Burberry with a proper party. Family, friends, great gifts and everyone dressed up.”
The gifts deserve attention too. The Kensington trench now comes in lightweight cashmere, while the Scottish-made House Check scarf offers more than 40 colour options, including the new Blackwatch Check. There’s also a first collaboration with Smythson, featuring notebooks and folding chess and backgammon sets. Even the dogs get check sweaters and bandanas. Add complimentary embroidery and you’ve got Christmas shopping sorted.
This one’s for anyone who dreams of spending December in the countryside, preferably with a very well-dressed extended family and absolutely no responsibility for hosting.
Gucci, meanwhile, has called in the woman who practically owns December. Mariah Carey stars in its new holiday campaign. The director? Harmony Korine again. Yes, the man behind Burberry’s country house Christmas also made Gucci’s festive fantasy. Two very different parties, one filmmaker.
Courtesy of Gucci
This time, we’re inside a hotel that has transformed itself for Mariah’s arrival. Elaborate decorations fill the space, and ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ makes its inevitable return.
It’s a clever choice. Mariah has become such a permanent fixture of Christmas culture that her annual musical comeback practically announces the season. Gucci leans into that with its playful attitude and an icon who understands the assignment.
If your Christmas involves dressing up, making an entrance and treating December as your personal season, Gucci knows exactly who you are.
Then there’s the cartoon Christmas, courtesy of Dior and Prada, for anyone who still loves a little childhood magic.
Christian Dior’s Night in Color, the animated short from French director Sylvain Chomet, imagines the friendship between Christian Dior and Marlene Dietrich. Hand-drawn animation takes us through Monsieur Dior’s apartment, the couture ateliers and Dietrich’s movie trailer, tracing the link between Dior and Hollywood and the creation of the 1949 Junon dress.
The film builds on the Dior Cruise 2027 collection and one of Jonathan Anderson’s earliest inspirations for it: cinema’s shift from black-and-white to Technicolor. With animation techniques dating back to the 1940s, it feels like a Christmas card from another cinematic era.
Prada takes a different approach, pairing John Pomeroy’s hand-drawn illustrations with Glen Luchford’s photography. Its Holiday 2026 campaign, launched on 27 October, stars Chen Haoyu, Luther Ford, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Maya Hawke and Sadie Sink alongside whimsical animated characters.
Courtesy of Prada
Fantasy meets reality, giving Prada’s Christmas a playful, cinematic feel. Dior has the nostalgia; Prada has the modern fantasy.
Four houses, three Christmas personalities. Would you spend the holidays at Burberry’s country estate, checking into Mariah’s Gucci hotel, or disappearing into Dior and Prada’s animated worlds? Which Christmas are you choosing?
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