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

It is the time of year to relax on the couch and devour a packet of festive treats in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a batch of fresh holiday movies aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the festive feeling, I marathoned as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, optimistically, on a good foot. This film is the only 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band end up trapped in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the non-fan, while devotees will certainly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is excellent for fans and a good start to the day.

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a Hollywood star roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and older star Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s performing in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their response. Except if you’re not acquainted with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming side stories, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at another season, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer shows up at the start of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least distinct from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a problem when he’s so central to everything.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a network's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him blowing the money 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 difference.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the background—Christmas is the environment 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 dispatched to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she encounters a fellow in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

An expert recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

The answer is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known figures.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning 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 what this is, but in reality it’s really a mash-up of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a far-off wintery locale and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher