Marathon Viewing This Year's Christmas Films: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the time of year to slob out on the sofa and consume a box of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a batch of latest Christmas films strives to join part of our holiday traditions—maybe even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the festive feeling, I watched as many fresh Christmas films as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a positive note. This is the sole 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers find themselves trapped in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to declare they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is amusing even for the casual viewer, while devotees will undoubtedly notice lots of easter eggs as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who must sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity tricked into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their response. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some touching storylines, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer pops up at the outset of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Could this be a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who encounters Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale progresses as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, 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 performance is flat—a problem when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him spending the sum on a family trip to Lapland.

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

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. During her travels, she meets a man in a bookshop who vows to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently declared this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is very good too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The truth is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s understated but sweet, and perfect viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling American family who come back together for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee 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 stating: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in reality it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the packed genre of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher