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

‘Tis the season to lounge on the couch and consume a packet of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of new seasonal stories strives to join part of our festive viewing—perhaps even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I watched as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, ideally, on a high. This is the only 2025 title on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stranded in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will certainly notice lots of references as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is excellent for devotees and a positive start to the day.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who are obliged to sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. One can imagine their retort. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some heartwarming side stories, and the ensemble is excellent, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer appears at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who picks up Mr Sood, the modern take 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 filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least different from all the others, but sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a network's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - 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 do a deal for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she encounters a man in a literary haven who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The truth is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a panel of well-known figures.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping classic festive films like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in execution it’s really a jumble of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher