If the dark mornings and gingerbread-spiced drinks aren't enough of an indication, the release of the John Lewis Christmas advert is a sure sign that the festive season is just around the corner.

With scarily powerful telescopes, loved-up snowmen and lonely penguins, the retail giant has left a tear-stained trail for the past few years with their heart-wrenching festive campaigns.

This year, however, John Lewis have taken a different spin on their Christmas advert and have steered clear of the expected gut-wrenching scenes.

The upbeat advert has already been viewed on YouTube by nearly 40,000 people in the first three hours of its release on Thursday morning.

It tells the story of Buster the dog enviously watching different wildlife bounce around on his family's brand new trampoline on Christmas Eve.

Four-year-old pooch Biff was handpicked from dozens of others Boxers to play Buster - chosen for his "expressive" face, and he's not the only animal in the promo.

A badger called Betsy enjoys a good bounce as does Hallie the hedgehog and Sid the squirrel.

As the story brings to life some of Britain's most-loved wildlife, John Lewis has chosen The Wildlife Trusts to be this year's Christmas campaign charity partner.

In a first for the retailer, John Lewis will also be partnering with Snapchat to create a bespoke Snapchat lense, which is available until midnight tonight, that will transform users into Buster the Dog.

Now a John Lewis tradition, the department store have again used a cover of an older song to bring their cheery Christmas advert together.

With London electronic band Vaults covering Randy Crawford's 'One Day I'll Fly Away', the 2016 advert centres around the theme of joy, following on from last year's spotlight on the loneliness sometimes felt by the elderly at Christmastime.

So what have the public made of it?

Audiences seem very much split in two at the story of Buster the dog - whilst many are happy with the bouncing animals campaign, others have been left feeling they would have liked something a little less "joyful"after a year of what one Guardian reporter has said "has been such a domino stack of heartbreaking disappointment".

This year the advert has rolled in at a cost allegedly less than £1million, though it still soars above an A Level media student's snowglobe attempt at an advert that went viral last week, after viewers mistook it for the official 2016 campaign.

In a bid to tug at the most heartstrings and sell the most products, Christmas advert campaigns have grown to be cinematic masterpieces in the past couple of years, with many also squeezing in a few Scottish links.

Remember some of these?

With some delightfully telling music, Sainsbury's campaign of 2015 resurrected a much loved childhood book character - a grey- and black-striped tabby cat named Mog.

The ad shows the clumsy cat almost ruin Christmas in a series of unfortunate events, before eventually settling down to a nice boiled egg after saving the day.

In 2011, hearts were captured by Scottish schoolboy Lewis McGowen and his countdown to Christmas morning.

Starting on December 1, the advert followed an impatient Lewis with his constant finger tapping, leg jiggling and clock watching in the lead up to Christmas morning.

The tale of a small boy, a snowman and a can of Irn-Bru is surely one of the most iconic festive adverts with a tartan twist.

This 2006 hit followed the unlikely duo's journey through the skies and their fight for the famous Scottish drink, backed by a lyrically altered version of Howard Blake's 'Walking in the Air'.

Teaming up with the Royal British Legion, the supermarket recreated the famous truce of the First World War one hundred years on in 2014.

It retells the story of Christmas Day in 1914, when opposing soldiers from both Britain and Germany surfaced from their trenches for a game of football.

A hilarious parody of John Lewis' annual tearjerker, Aldi's 2015 Christmas advert featured its very own Man on the Moon.

It showed an elderly man, greatly resembling the man in the original John Lewis advert, comparing the price of an Aldi telescope to that of one from the store.

Perhaps one of the most memorable Christmas adverts, this was the one that pretty much started it all for John Lewis.

The Long Wait, about the boy who just could not wait to give his parents their presents on Christmas day, is many people's favourite. But the tale of two snowmen in love really stole hearts.

The 'Lidl school of Christmas' saw hoards of people learning the tricks of the festive season.

With lessons ranging from making the best leftover sandwich to how to react to bad gifts, the 2015 Lidl advert perfectly captured every aspect of the big day that require just that little bit of extra time and care.

Relighting everybody's memory of childhood stuffed animals, John Lewis continued on its emotion clad streak of Christmas adverts in 2014, with a little boy and his best friend Monty the penguin.

After playing in the snow and going to school together, the little boy soon realises that something is off with his best buddy - he needs love.

The little boy introduces Monty to a lady penguin, Mabel, on Christmas Day in an ending that left viewers with that warm fuzzy feeling of festive joy.

Marks and Spencers added that special magical feeling drenched in a mass amount of glitter to Christmas advertising in 2013.

With nods to both Alice and Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz, the ad featured a much older Alice and her magical journey down a rabbit hole to find her pet dog.

Warburtons joined the Christmas ad battle back in 2015, enlisting in the help of some well-known childhood puppet heroes.

The advert saw the Muppets pitch a new idea for the Christmas commercial and turned it into one of their famous shows, making it the most sensational, inspirational, giant-tational advert of the year.