Binge-Watching 2025's Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to slob out on the couch and demolish a tin of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

As always, a crop of latest seasonal stories aims to become part of our holiday traditions—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 distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the Christmas spirit, I binged as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, hopefully, on a positive note. This release is the sole 2025 title on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 festive features of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stranded in the UK after finishing their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while devotees will certainly notice lots of references as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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 loved ones who are obliged to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor cast a pantomime.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. You can guess their retort. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming storylines, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit naff at another season, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer shows up at the start of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who picks up Mr Sood, the latest spin on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses as the stingy Mr Sood is visited by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least different from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

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 is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he learns there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the remainder.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

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 scene of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she encounters a man in a literary haven who vows to show her Christmas in 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 dash of elegance and gives the necessary cozy feelings.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The answer is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s low-key but endearing, and good viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a quarrelling 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 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 real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in execution it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a story as well-worn: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher