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

‘Tis the season to lounge on the couch and devour a tin of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

Once again, a crop of fresh Christmas films strives to join part of our festive viewing—perhaps even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Therefore, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the holiday mood, I watched as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, ideally, on a good foot. This film is the only 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time.

The musical trio end up stranded in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are hindered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the uninitiated, while fans will certainly pick up on lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who will have to sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor cast a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. One can imagine their retort. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming storylines, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face pops up at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who picks up Mr Sood, the newest interpretation on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by an actor from Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the director of Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, 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 acting is wooden—a problem when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) persuades him spending the sum on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he learns there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to reimburse the difference.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the setting—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she encounters a man in a book store who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a dash of elegance and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is notable too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The truth is to be discovered, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s understated but endearing, and good viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a quarrelling American family who gather for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning 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 true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in practice it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher