Devouring 2025's Christmas Films: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

‘Tis the season to relax on the couch and demolish a packet of mince pies in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.

Once again, a crop of new seasonal stories aims to become part of our holiday traditions—potentially even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the festive feeling, I binged as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, ideally, on a good foot. This release is the sole 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the top 100 festive features of all time.

The popular band are stranded in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are hindered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The repartee between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the uninitiated, while followers will undoubtedly notice lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is superb for devotees and a good start to the day.

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity cast a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and aging action hero Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their retort. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some great jokes, some heartwarming storylines, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer appears at the beginning 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 singing black cab driver who collects Mr Sood, the modern take 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the apparitions 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 sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a problem when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an large festive windfall at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he finds out there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to return the difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

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 comfortable and seasonal all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. En route, she encounters a fellow in a book store who vows to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the required cozy feelings.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The truth is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known experts and celebrities.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who gather for the holidays—including other Oscar nominee 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 stating: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in reality it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher