Football’s Festive Featurettes: Reindeer on the loose at Cobham

The quintessential Christmas advertisement has become as much a part of the festive ritual as a tree decorated in lights or a wreath hanging on the front door.

Each year without fail, the British public wait with baited breath for the John Lewis commercial to make its debut and more recently, football and other sporting clubs have hopped on the bandwagon, producing their own festive featurettes.

Insider Sport is looking back at past Christmas campaigns produced by football clubs to market merchandise stores in the run up to the big day.

In 2015, Premier League giants Chelsea enlisted its entire squad to put together the ‘Christmas at Cobham’ festive campaign; a somewhat amusing skit showing players preparing for the annual sit-down Christmas dinner.

“Twas the night before Christmas and not a creature was stirring, except that is for in one little corner of Cobham,” a voiceover sets the scene.

A Christmas tree is dragged out onto the pitch as the lawnmower starts up. The camera zooms in on blue baubles hanging from the netting and the music kicks in.

Then-captain John Terry is the first to arrive at the Blues’ Surrey-based headquarters, only to discover a stray reindeer tied up in his parking space, which wreaks havoc later on when it breaks loose.

Elsewhere, Gary Cahill negotiates a tangled heap of Christmas lights as he starts work on decking out the Cobham tree in Chelsea decorations.

Eden Hazard gets crafty in the dressing rooms, cutting out some festive paper chains in the shape of angels and looking incredibly pleased with his garland creation.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek gets lunch on the go, frying the potatoes in a pan, whilst Willian carefully ices a tray of gingerbread men in Chelsea colours before his teammate sneaks a sugary biscuit when Willian isn’t looking.

Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois searches for his goalie glove in the changing rooms, only to be stumped as to where he has misplaced it. Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, the missing item is being used as a substitute oven glove by Loftus-Cheek as he stuffs the turkey!

The Blues squad, all attired in Chelsea Christmas jumpers, sit down to a delicious looking festive feast, just as Cahill, who is still decorating the tree outdoors, plugs in the tree lights and blows all the electricity in the building, plunging the training facility into a blackout.

Chelsea’s festive marketing campaign gives supporters a glimpse behind the scene of the yearly event, showing players all mucking in with individual chores and coming together at Christmastime.

There is a feel-good factor about the video and it’s evident that players, staff and supporters had fun with the production of the video.

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