Binge-Watching This Year's Christmas Films: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.
It is the time of year to relax on the couch and demolish a box of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.
This year, a batch of fresh holiday movies aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).
Therefore, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the holiday mood, I marathoned as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.
Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Kicking off, ideally, on a positive note. This release is the only 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.
The popular band end up trapped in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”
The banter between the arguing trio is amusing even for the non-fan, while fans will undoubtedly pick up on lots of references as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.
It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.
It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is great for devotees and a solid start to the day.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who must sit through it.
8.45am - Tinsel Town
Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity tricked into a pantomime.
“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and older star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.
His pantomime fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their retort. Except if you’re not acquainted with traditional British theatre traditions.
There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the ensemble is cracking, too.
It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit tacky at another season, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
10.19am - Christmas Karma
An actor pops up at the outset of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Could this be a budding festive ritual?
This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who collects Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 classic narrative unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is visited by the spirits of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.
This South Asian reinterpretation 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 the focal point.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
Lunchtime: Stuffed
Before lunch for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “isn't big on Christmas.”
But after he is awarded an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.
There’s just one problem—he finds out there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to reimburse the remainder.
Fun while it lasts but not lasting.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
A Classy Netflix Romance
This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.
Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. En route, she runs into a fellow in a bookshop who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.
An expert recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a dash of elegance and gives the necessary 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
Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.
The answer is to be discovered, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known experts and celebrities.
It’s understated but endearing, and perfect viewing while expecting Santa to visit.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
A Star-Studded Family Drama
Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a bickering 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 Christmas classics like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”
So that’s the premise, but in reality it’s really a jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
Formulaic Fun
The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new entry in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.
It’s a story as old as time: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up finding romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher