“There are no strangers here”
Northern Irish pub shows the spirit of Christmas
December 3, 2023, 9:27 a.m
While supermarket chains and department stores compete every year for the best Christmas video, a pub’s video touches the hearts of millions of people. The family business from Northern Ireland wants to remind people that Christmas is not a happy time for everyone.
Within just a few days, the video was viewed millions of times: A pub in Northern Ireland achieved surprising success with its Christmas advertising. In it, an old man leaves his house with a cane, visits a cemetery and then enters a pub. As he sits alone at the table, he experiences a special moment of humanity. “We never thought we’d end up in the news. It’s just crazy,” says Una Burns, the 32-year-old manager of Charlie’s Bar. The pub in the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen is named after her grandfather and has been in the family since 1944.
Even on British Christmas Day, December 25th, the pub traditionally remains open. Her father had previously been asked if he wanted to spend the day with his family and four children. But he wanted to be there for people who might be alone on Christmas Day, Burns said. “Why should they have to sit at home alone?”
For some people, the holidays are not a particularly nice time. “It’s not as happy as it sometimes looks on TV,” Burns told the German Press Agency. They also wanted to point this out with their video clip promoting the opening at Christmas. That seems to hit a nerve.
Best Christmas advertising
In a post on the short message service X, the video was viewed more than 8.7 million times and there are more than 80,000 likes on the pub’s Instagram channel. The British newspaper “Guardian” already rated the clip as the best Christmas ad of the year, even though the video was made on a small budget. The BBC reported as did the Times newspaper.
The two-minute video shows a gentleman walking through the city to the song “People Help The People” by singer Birdy. He places flowers at a grave and wants to greet people on the street who don’t react. Then sits alone in a pub and orders a beer. Non-alcoholic, as Burns pointed out. It’s important to her that you don’t have to drink alcohol in the pub.
In the video, a young couple then decides to keep the strange man company. They wanted to remind people to be kind, Burns said. “It doesn’t take much – maybe a simple hello, maybe a smile.”
The author Jan Howley wrote in a “Times” article that she was not surprised that the video was so successful. She attributed this to a feeling of loneliness. In today’s society, people are living longer and longer. The truth is that “we all feel this way at some point.” Whether you’re divorced or widowed, you’re struggling with retirement or an empty nest. “Unless you have experienced loneliness, I don’t think you can imagine how hard it affects you,” wrote Howley, who said she organizes meetings for older people. When you meet other people, you feel less lonely. “And if Charlie’s advertising sends us all into the holiday season with that message, then it’s probably better than any department store offering.”