British Airways embraces Christmas

Not too long ago, there weren't too many brands that were confidently using Christmas in their promotional activities.

Perhaps in fear of alienating groups that don't celebrate a Christian festival, marketers chose instead to stand on the sidelines (or worse still; half-heartedly include a lone bauble or miserable string of tinsel here and there).

Something changed however.

Brands like Woolworths are now fully-behind this year's Christmas cheer - and now...the mother of all Church of England brands, British Airways, stops just short of having a fully-manned nativity scene (they may have struggled to find three wise men in the UK) at Heathrow.

Yes, according to Simple Flying, the world's favourite airline are preparing to dazzle travellers.

Even before boarding their aircraft, travellers will be whisked away to the North Pole with festively decorated departure halls and gates. Everything from the check-in screens and seasonal décor to the Christmas music in the halls will feel like the holidays for British Airways customers.

Those departing from British Airways' London Heathrow's Terminal 5 will instead enter a winter wonderland before their flight. The airline commissioned an original British artist to create the Christmas display in the walkway between its main lounges. The unique design will feature "snow graffiti" along with a British skyline scene featuring white puffy snow.

For those flying on the 25th and 26th of December, in-flight service will feature traditional Christmas dinner, with all of the necessary trimmings, and first class passengers will get themselves a special hand-painted bauble, to put on their tree at home (fingers crossed they have one of those).

For those left at home, they can write a special message to their loved ones who are travelling via this nifty website, which will then be displayed on digital hoardings inside of London's Heathrow airport.

This is serious stuff - if they could, one gets the impression that they even considered having the Archbishop of Canterbury himself piloting the flight between New York and London for the occasion.

Our thoughts here? Well, the fact that brands stepped away from Christmas for so many years was frankly very, very silly.

At the heart of it, the Christmas message (which is applicable to all) is all about spreading joy and goodwill to all; so it's good to see that some brands are making a comeback to the festive season. Surely a message of togetherness and thankfulness is better than something so blatantly consumerist like Black Friday?

If anyone gives them flak for it...well; haters are gonna hate.