Sainsbury's has unveiled its 2026 Christmas advert, bringing back Roald Dahl's Big Friendly Giant for a third consecutive year. This time the festive film centres on real-life employee Annie Ferguson, who ventures into Giant Country to make sure the BFG does not miss out on Christmas. The two-minute film premieres on television at 6.26pm on Sunday 1 November 2026, and goes live across Sainsbury's social channels and website at the same time.

The story turns last year's premise around. Instead of the BFG helping a family, the giant himself is ill, tucked up in his cave with a cold, convinced he will miss Christmas altogether. Annie, who also starred in last year's advert, loads a delivery van with crates of festive food, including brussel sprouts, pigs in blankets, cheese and a bacon-wrapped turkey crown, and sets off to deliver a full Christmas dinner to his door.

A sprout avalanche on the way

The journey is where the film earns its festive chaos. A runaway delivery van, a cheese-loving monster and what one preview describes as a sprout avalanche all stand between Annie and the BFG's cave, and most of the dinner survives the trip intact. The pair share the meal at the end, with one word on their minds, according to the retailer's account of the film: Wondercrump. The campaign was created by New Commercial Arts, and Sainsbury's has again cast a genuine colleague in the lead role.

There is a charitable strand too. To reinforce the ad's message that no one should miss out, Sainsbury's has partnered with Comic Relief to provide 12 million meals to families in the UK who need them most. The BFG's return puts Sainsbury's among the first supermarkets out of the gate in this year's Christmas advertising race, alongside Tesco, whose own festive film launched the same weekend.