Marathon Viewing 2025's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.
‘Tis the time of year to lounge on the sofa and demolish a tin of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.
This year, a crop of latest holiday movies hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).
Thus, in a vital public service to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the holiday mood, I watched as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.
Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Kicking off, hopefully, on a good foot. This release is the only 2025 title on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.
The musical trio find themselves stuck in the UK after finishing their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “find their brotherly magic.”
The back-and-forth between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the uninitiated, while followers will certainly notice lots of references as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.
It’s a travelogue of mishaps.
It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is superb for fans and a positive start to the day.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who must sit through it.
Late Morning: Tinsel Town
A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor cast a pantomime.
“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.
His Aladdin cast-mates tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. One can imagine their retort. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.
There are some very funny lines, some heartwarming sub-plots, and the ensemble is excellent, too.
It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit naff at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
A New Spin on Scrooge
Danny Dyer pops up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Might this become a budding festive ritual?
This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 well-known tale progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, 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 compelling and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a problem when he’s so the main character.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
Lunchtime: Stuffed
Before lunch for a network's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”
But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a vacation 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 pay back the difference.
Enjoyable but forgettable.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
A Classy Netflix Romance
This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.
Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a country estate to do a deal for a champagne business. During her travels, she meets a man in a bookshop who offers to show her a festive Paris.
A commentator recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the required heartwarming sensation.
The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is notable too.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas
Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the persuasion of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.
The secret is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.
It’s gentle but sweet, and good viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a quarrelling American family who gather 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 the concept, but in reality it’s really a jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally takes center stage.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
Formulaic Fun
The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.
It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up discovering romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
