Binge-Watching 2025's Holiday Movies: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

‘Tis the season to lounge on the couch and demolish a packet of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a crop of fresh seasonal stories aims to become part of our festive viewing—perhaps even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Therefore, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the festive feeling, I watched as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, hopefully, on a high. This release is the only 2025 title on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 festive features of all time.

The popular band are stuck in the UK after concluding their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The back-and-forth between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while devotees will certainly pick up on lots of references as they try 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 fans and a solid start to the day.

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity cast a "panto".

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. One can imagine their response. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some hilarious moments, some heartwarming side stories, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit naff at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer shows up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Could this be a new Christmas tradition?

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 a star of Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits 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 charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids 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 issue—he learns there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to pay back the difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the background—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. En route, she meets a guy in a bookshop who vows to show her a festive Paris.

An expert recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Teenage 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 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 understated but charming, and ideal viewing while anticipating 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 fellow acclaimed actress 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 declaring: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in execution it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

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

It’s a story as well-worn: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher