Marathon Viewing 2025's Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.
‘Tis the season to slob out on the sofa and demolish a box of mince pies in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.
As always, a selection of latest seasonal stories strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).
Thus, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.
First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick
Kicking off, optimistically, on a high. This release is the only 2025 title on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.
The musical trio end up stuck in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are hindered by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”
The banter between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while fans will certainly pick up on lots of references as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.
It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.
It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is great for fans and a solid start to the day.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who must sit through it.
8.45am - Tinsel Town
A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity cast a pantomime.
“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.
His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their retort. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.
There are some great jokes, some heartwarming sub-plots, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.
It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
10.19am - Christmas Karma
An actor pops up at the outset of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Is this a new Christmas tradition?
This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who encounters Mr Sood, the modern take on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Mr Sood is played by a star of Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the stingy Mr Sood is visited by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.
This cultural adaptation is at least different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a problem when he’s so the main character.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
Lunchtime: Stuffed
There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”
But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) persuades him blowing the money on a vacation to Lapland.
There’s just one snag—he learns there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to pay back the remainder.
Fun while it lasts but not lasting.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
A Classy Netflix Romance
This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the background—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.
High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. On the way, she encounters a man in a bookshop who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.
An expert recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the required cozy feelings.
The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is particularly strong too.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas
Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, despite the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.
The answer is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.
It’s gentle but charming, and ideal viewing while expecting Santa to visit.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional American family who gather for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.
Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “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 jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s taken a dip, 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 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