Binge-Watching 2025's Holiday Movies: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.
‘Tis the season to slob out on the couch and consume a packet of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.
As always, a batch of latest seasonal stories strives to join part of our festive viewing—potentially even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).
Thus, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the festive feeling, I marathoned as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.
7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Starting, hopefully, on a high. This film is the exclusive 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.
The musical trio end up trapped in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”
The repartee between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while followers will certainly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.
It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.
It’s not legendary, but is great for devotees and a solid start to the day.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who will have to sit through it.
8.45am - Tinsel Town
Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity tricked into a traditional British stage show.
“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.
His Aladdin cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their response. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.
There are some very funny lines, some heartwarming storylines, and the rest of the cast is cracking, 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.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
10.19am - Christmas Karma
Danny Dyer shows up at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Is this a new Christmas tradition?
This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 well-known tale develops 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 cultural adaptation is at least different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
Noon: A BBC Special
There's just enough time for a channel's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”
But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a family trip to Lapland.
There’s just one issue—he learns 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 excess.
Pleasant yet unmemorable.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
A Classy Netflix Romance
This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the background—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.
Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to do a deal for a champagne business. During her travels, she runs into a man in a literary haven who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.
A commentator recently declared this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the required heartwarming sensation.
The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is very good too.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄
Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas
Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, in spite of the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.
The answer is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities.
It’s low-key but sweet, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a quarrelling American family who come back together for the holidays—including other Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.
Pfeiffer begins by referencing classic festive films like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”
So that’s what this is, but in practice it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Formulaic Fun
The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—festive fodder.
It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
