Marathon Viewing 2025's Christmas Films: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to relax on the couch and devour a packet of mince pies in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a crop of new Christmas films hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Therefore, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the holiday mood, I watched as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Starting, hopefully, on a high. This release is the only 2025 entry on a popular review site's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time.

The musical trio find themselves stuck in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The repartee between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not legendary, but is excellent for fans and a good start to the day.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who are obliged to sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their reply. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some heartwarming sub-plots, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer appears at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up Mr Sood, the modern take on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s portrayal is lifeless—a problem when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a network's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to return the excess.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. En route, she meets a fellow in a book store who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently declared this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is very good too.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, in spite of the persuasion of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The answer is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a team of well-known figures.

It’s gentle but charming, and good viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a quarrelling American family who come back together for the holidays—including fellow acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping Christmas classics like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before stating: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in reality it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the packed genre of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and highly entertaining—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher