What year did the Christmas m&m "they do exist!" commercial originally air?

The Christmas M&M Commercial with the fainting Santa first aired on December 5, 1996. The first M&M Christmas commercials aired in the early 1980s.

Mars Inc makes M&Ms and Holiday M&Ms were first launched in 1986. The Christmas M&Ms are red and green and originally had pine tree and candle symbols instead of their usual trademark. In 1993, the M&M trademark replaced the holiday symbols. In November 2011, Mars released Cinnamon Milk Chocolate M&Ms for Christmas.

Do you enjoy M&M’s, but find that they just don’t contain enough chocolate? We’re pretty sure that no one has ever had that problem, but M&M’s/Mars has solved it anyway with the creation of M&M’s Mega. Each candy has three times as much chocolate as a regular M&M, coated with the traditional candy shell. Find out more at The Consumerist.