Binge-Watching 2025's Christmas Films: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the season to relax on the sofa and consume a box of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

Once again, a crop of fresh Christmas films strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the holiday mood, I watched as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, ideally, on a positive note. This is the only 2025 entry on a popular review site's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The popular band are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to announce they won’t get home until they “find their brotherly magic.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while followers will undoubtedly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not legendary, but is superb for fans and a solid start to the day.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who are obliged to sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor roped into a pantomime.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. One can imagine their reply. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching sub-plots, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face appears at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Could this be 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 familiar story progresses as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least distinct from all the others, but sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There’s time for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character 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 blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the background—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she meets a man in a book store who promises to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A commentator recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.

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, in spite of the persuasion of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

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

It’s low-key but sweet, and perfect viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling American family who gather for the holidays—including fellow acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer begins by referencing classic festive films 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 execution it’s really a jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a far-off wintery locale and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher