Binge-Watching 2025's Christmas Films: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the season to lounge on the sofa and demolish a packet of mince pies in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

As always, a batch of new holiday movies 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 (don’t start).

So, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to embrace the festive feeling, I marathoned as many recent Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, optimistically, on a good foot. This film is the sole 2025 title on a famous website's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band end up trapped in the UK after concluding their world tour and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “find their brotherly magic.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will no doubt notice lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is superb for fans and a good 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

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity roped into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their reply. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

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

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit tacky at a different time, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

A familiar face pops up at the outset of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 confronted by the spirits 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 performance is wooden—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he gets an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he discovers there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the remainder.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she meets a guy in a book store who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently declared this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a touch of class and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

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

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

It’s understated but charming, and ideal viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a dysfunctional American family who reunite 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 the concept, but in practice it’s really a jumble of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

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

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher