In what has now become an annual event, the Charlie’s Bar Christmas advert debuted earlier this evening (Friday).
The touching video stars a widow grieving her husband as she finds a letter from him. Intercut with flashbacks, it shows the husband and wife dancing, enjoying dinner and making memories with their son and granddaughter.
In the present, the widow gets a visit from her granddaughter and son and they all head to Charlie’s Bar and mark their first Christmas without a much-loved member of the family.
It features the song ‘Carry You’ by Ruelle and the video was shot and edited by Meagan Daley, who starred in the previous video.
The video is captioned simply with: "While some celebrate, others grieve. Your presence could be someone's greatest present this Christmas"
Una Burns, the manager of Charlie’s Bar worried she wouldn’t be able to top the heartfelt 2023 advert.
Earlier this week, she told this newspaper: “ I was so torn to be honest. Up until October, I didn’t think we were going to put anything out.”
She continued: “I was a bit concerned that it's so hard to follow last year's but then the other side of me, I thought we have got a good platform there and if it can be used in some way to spread some Christmas cheer and a positive message it made sense to put something out.”
However, the 2024 advert has now premiered and captured the hearts of the public.
Hundreds of comments on social media flooded in when the video was released and at the time of writing it already has over 45,000 views on Instagram and over 72,000 views on Facebook, around three hours after the premiere.
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