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

It is the season to relax on the sofa and demolish a box of festive treats in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a selection of new holiday movies strives to join part of our festive viewing—maybe even earning a place alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

So, in a vital public service to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to embrace the holiday mood, I marathoned as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, ideally, on a good foot. This film is the only 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are trapped in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an evil Santa, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the non-fan, while fans will certainly pick up on lots of references as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not legendary, but is great for fans and a good start to the day.

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star 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 older star Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has tricked him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His pantomime co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their reply. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face shows up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Is this a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 develops as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the spirits of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least unique 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 focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s time for a network's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he gets an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a vacation to Lapland.

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

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

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

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. On the way, she encounters a guy in a bookshop who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.

A commentator recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

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

It’s low-key but charming, and perfect viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch 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 starts by mentioning holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in practice it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher