Binge-Watching 2025's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the season to slob out on the sofa and consume a packet of mince pies in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a selection of fresh seasonal stories aims to become part of our festive viewing—potentially even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the holiday mood, I marathoned as many fresh Christmas films as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, hopefully, on a high. This film is the sole 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the casual viewer, while devotees will certainly catch lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is excellent for fans and a positive start to the day.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who will have to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. You can guess their retort. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some heartwarming sub-plots, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit tacky at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer pops up at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the miserly Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least distinct from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

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

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—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 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 setting—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. En route, she encounters a guy in a book store who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert recently declared this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, despite the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The answer is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who come back together for the holidays—including fellow acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher