Marathon Viewing 2025's Holiday Movies: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the time of year to lounge on the couch and consume a box of festive treats in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a crop of latest seasonal stories aims to become part of our holiday traditions—potentially even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Therefore, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the Christmas spirit, I binged as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Starting, ideally, on a high. This film is the sole 2025 title on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The Jonas Brothers find themselves stranded in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The banter between the arguing trio is enjoyable even for the casual viewer, while devotees will undoubtedly pick up on lots of references as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor roped into a "panto".

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their retort. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming storylines, and the ensemble is excellent, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit tacky at any other time of year, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor shows up at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Could this be a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least different from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he receives an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he finds out there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to pay back the remainder.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the scene 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 country estate to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. En route, she encounters a guy in a literary haven who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently declared this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.

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, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

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

It’s gentle but sweet, and ideal viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

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

So that’s the concept, but in reality it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as familiar as can be: An American woman goes on a quest to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher