Marathon Viewing 2025's Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the season to lounge on the sofa and devour a box of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a selection of fresh holiday movies strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many fresh holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, optimistically, on a high. This is the sole 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers end up stranded in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the casual viewer, while followers will certainly catch lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is excellent 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.

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor tricked into a "panto".

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their response. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming storylines, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor shows up at the outset 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 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 well-known tale progresses as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least unique from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There's just enough time for a channel's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

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

There’s just one problem—he finds out there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to return the difference.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

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 main point—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. En route, she encounters a guy in a book store who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

An expert recently declared this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

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

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

It’s understated but charming, and ideal 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 reunite for the holidays—including fellow acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer begins by referencing 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 unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - 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 tale as well-worn: An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher