Samsung lets imagination take over in enchanting Christmas ad
You might not have expected this at all, but it happened when everyone's wishes come true at Christmas.
“A Friend for Christmas” is directed by award-winning director Ben Woolf for St Mark’s Studios and produced in association with Taylor Herring. It is currently showing online and in UK cinemas.
The story follows a young girl, Laura, as she adjusts to her family’s recent move. She spends her days watching the neighborhood children play through snow-dusted windows, while relying on her imaginary friend Milo to fill the void left by the old friends she has left behind.
Laura is struggling to adjust to her new surroundings when her grandfather comes up with an idea that combines both technology and tenderness. He introduces her to the Samsung Galaxy AI drawing assistant, which helps turn his sketch of Milo – as the girl described it – into something more vivid and defined. By Christmas morning, that small spark of creativity becomes a moment of miracle.
Woolf said that grounding the film in believable emotion was his top priority. “The story was intended to show Samsung tech integrating into real family life. The film stands or falls on building a connection with the hero girl, Laura. The priority from my side was to capture a child’s performance that feels real and grounded,” he noted. “Casting kids, particularly for commercials, is always a challenge you want to balance a feeling of authenticity with clear storytelling to land the beats in the right order.”
He added: “We wanted to make a film that felt emotionally true and showcased the power of AI in a Christmassy setting, demonstrating how AI can fit into a relatable family dynamic, becoming a tool that helps a child’s imagination spill into the real world. We aimed for a warm, organic look and feel – keeping the camera language unobtrusive so performance and emotion stayed front and center. The goal was intimacy and softness, letting the world feel real so that when the AI is introduced, it lands as wonder rather than VFX.”
Woolf explained that the hope was to present AI not as something futuristic, but as a tool that helps bring a child’s inner world into the real one especially when the magical moment arrives.
Samsung released the ad alongside findings from a survey of 2,000 parents in the UK that show that children’s imaginations are at their peak around the age of six – a detail that echoes Laura’s story and defines creativity as something worth nurturing, not outgrowing.
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