Marathon Viewing 2025's Christmas Films: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the season to lounge on the couch and demolish a tin of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a selection of fresh Christmas films aims to become part of our holiday traditions—potentially even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a noble effort to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to get into the festive feeling, I binged as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, ideally, on a good foot. This release is the exclusive 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band are stranded in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are hindered by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the non-fan, while followers will undoubtedly pick up on lots of references as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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 must sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor tricked into a "panto".

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and aging star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their retort. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

A familiar face appears at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who picks up Mr Sood, the modern take 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 classic narrative unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted 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 unique from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a problem when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a network's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he discovers there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to return the difference.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the background—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she runs into a fellow in a literary haven who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The truth is out there, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the guidance of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s gentle but sweet, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head 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 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 real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in execution it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but happily here’s a new addition in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher