Marathon Viewing 2025's Festive Features: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the season to relax on the sofa and devour a box of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a batch of latest Christmas films aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Therefore, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, hopefully, on a positive note. This release is the sole 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band end up stranded in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an evil Santa, who sings to announce they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while fans will certainly catch lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is excellent for fans and a solid start to the day.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who must sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their retort. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some great jokes, some heartwarming side stories, and the ensemble is excellent, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor pops up at the start of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who collects Mr Sood, the newest interpretation on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by an actor from Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative unfolds as the stingy Mr Sood is visited by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least different from all the others, but sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a problem when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he discovers there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the remainder.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. En route, she runs into a guy in a bookshop who vows to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, in spite of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The answer is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s low-key but charming, and perfect viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a bickering American family who gather for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in execution it’s really a jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new offering in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as well-worn: 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