Marathon Viewing 2025's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the season to slob out on the sofa and demolish a tin of mince pies in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a selection of fresh holiday movies hopes to be part of our festive viewing—maybe even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the festive feeling, I watched as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, optimistically, on a high. This is the exclusive 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must return for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while followers will undoubtedly notice lots of easter eggs 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 great for devotees and a good start to the day.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who will have to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older lead Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. One can imagine their reply. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

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

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

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

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up 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 unfolds as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted 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 unfortunately he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s portrayal is wooden—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash 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 devise a plan for how to reimburse the remainder.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

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 scene of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she meets a guy in a literary haven who promises to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The secret is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s gentle but sweet, and ideal viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: 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 begins by referencing classic festive films 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 premise, but in reality it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the packed genre of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman goes on a quest to a far-off wintery locale and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher