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

‘Tis the time of year to lounge on the couch and consume a tin of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

This year, a crop of new Christmas films aims to become part of our festive viewing—perhaps 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 get into the Christmas spirit, I binged as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, hopefully, on a positive note. This film is the only 2025 title on a famous website's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time.

The Jonas Brothers find themselves stranded in the UK after finishing their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while fans will certainly catch lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who must sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and aging action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin cast-mates tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. You can guess their retort. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming side stories, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer shows up at the start of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who collects 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 familiar story develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least unique from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a problem when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

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

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) persuades him spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he discovers there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to pay back the excess.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the setting—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its main point—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she runs into a fellow in a literary haven who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, in spite of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

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

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a bickering American family who reunite for the holidays—including fellow 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 unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new offering in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and highly entertaining—festive fodder.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher