Binge-Watching 2025's Christmas Films: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the season to slob out on the sofa and demolish a box of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.

As always, a selection of new seasonal stories hopes to be part of our festive viewing—potentially even earning a place alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to embrace the holiday mood, I watched as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a positive note. This release is the sole 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The musical trio end up stranded in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their brotherly magic.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while fans will certainly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not legendary, but is superb for devotees and a good 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 movie actor tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their retort. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some heartwarming sub-plots, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer pops up at the beginning of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the next movie straight. Is this a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters 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 the director of Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There’s time for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.

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

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: 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 assigned to a vineyard to do a deal for a champagne business. En route, she runs into a fellow in a literary haven who vows to show her a festive Paris.

An expert recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is particularly strong 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 (starring James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The secret is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s gentle but endearing, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a quarrelling 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 Christmas classics like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher