Marathon Viewing This Year's Christmas Films: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.
‘Tis the season to slob out on the sofa and devour a packet of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.
This year, a selection of new Christmas films strives to join part of our festive viewing—perhaps even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).
Therefore, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the Christmas spirit, I watched as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.
First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick
Beginning, optimistically, on a high. This release is the only 2025 entry on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.
The musical trio find themselves stranded in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to announce they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”
The back-and-forth between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the casual viewer, while fans will undoubtedly catch lots of easter eggs 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.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who are obliged to sit through it.
8.45am - Tinsel Town
A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity cast a pantomime.
“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and ageing star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.
His Aladdin fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their reply. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.
There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming storylines, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.
It’s the type of film that would be a bit tacky at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
10.19am - Christmas Karma
An actor pops up at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the next movie straight. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?
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 familiar story develops as the stingy Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.
This Indian Scrooge is at least unique from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Noon: A BBC Special
Before lunch for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “isn't big on Christmas.”
But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.
There’s just one issue—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to reimburse the remainder.
Fun while it lasts but not lasting.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
1.12pm - Champagne Problems
This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.
Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. On the way, she runs into a man in a bookshop who promises to show her a festive Paris.
A commentator 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 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: 🎄🎄🎄
3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas
Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, in spite of the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.
The answer is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known figures.
It’s gentle but charming, and good viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch 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 starts by mentioning 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 unsung heroes 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 takes center stage.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.
It’s a tale as familiar as can be: 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
