Binge-Watching 2025's Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the season to lounge on the sofa and demolish a packet of mince pies in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a crop of new holiday movies hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the festive feeling, I marathoned as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, hopefully, on a positive note. This release is the only 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The Jonas Brothers end up stuck in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the non-fan, while devotees will no doubt catch lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is great for devotees and a positive start to the day.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who are obliged to sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. You can guess their reply. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some touching side stories, and the rest of the cast 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 appears at the start of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the next movie straight. Is this a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the modern take 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 classic narrative develops as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least different from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is lifeless—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There’s time for a network's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a vacation to Lapland.

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

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the background—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she runs into a guy in a bookshop who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.

A commentator recently declared this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, despite the persuasion of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

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

It’s understated but sweet, 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 starts by mentioning classic festive films like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before stating: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in reality it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last 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 crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—seasonal comfort food.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher