Apple’s 2026 holiday film, “The Dreamer,” puts a Mac in the lead role for a change, 9to5Mac reports. The last few years of holiday ads have revolved around iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods. This one features the MacBook Neo, with a brief cameo from an iPhone 3GS and a shot of a 2010-era iMac.
The short follows a child who loves to draw, then hides that passion as he grows up under self-consciousness and peer pressure. It ends with his parents gifting him a MacBook Neo as a teenager, which he uses to turn the drawings into a cartoon. Apple’s own description: “sometimes all it takes to remember what makes us special, is someone who believes in us.”
9to5Mac’s take, offered as a personal one, is that it might be Apple’s best holiday film in years.
My take
I like that they let a notebook carry the story instead of another close-up of a Dynamic Island. The message is simple, and it tracks: sometimes the gift isn’t the machine, it’s someone making room for the thing you were already made to do.
God Bless, and Happy hacking!
