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

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. 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. In December 2012, Mars Inc, announced that for a limited time, an 8oz mix of M&Ms with new colors that were selected by M&M Facebook fans will be available. In December 2011 and January 2012, fans were given the opportunity to vote on what colors they wanted in the new mix. The winning colors were blue, red, green, purple, aqua and dark pink.