Marathon Viewing This Year's Christmas Films: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.
It is the season to lounge on the sofa and consume a tin of mince pies in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.
As always, a crop of new Christmas films strives to join part of our holiday traditions—potentially even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).
Thus, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to embrace the holiday mood, I watched as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.
7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Beginning, optimistically, on a high. This is the only 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time.
The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”
The banter between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while fans will undoubtedly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.
It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.
It’s not an all-time classic, but is excellent for fans and a good start to the day.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who must sit through it.
8.45am - Tinsel Town
A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity tricked into a traditional British stage show.
“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and aging star Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.
His pantomime fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their response. Except if you’re ignorant of traditional British theatre traditions.
There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.
It’s the type of film that would be a bit tacky at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
10.19am - Christmas Karma
A familiar face appears at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Could this be a budding festive ritual?
This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.
This Indian Scrooge is at least different from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
Lunchtime: Stuffed
There's just enough time for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do 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 problem—he finds out there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to reimburse the excess.
Enjoyable but forgettable.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems
This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.
Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she runs into a fellow in a bookshop who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.
A commentator recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.
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, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, in spite of the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.
The answer is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.
It’s understated but endearing, and good viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a bickering American family who reunite for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.
Pfeiffer starts by mentioning Christmas classics 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 concept, but in practice it’s really a jumble of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally takes center stage.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.
It’s a narrative as well-worn: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up discovering romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
