Key Highlights
- The article provides a review of several 2025 Christmas films, categorizing them into good, bad, and so-bad-it’s-good.
- Ian Youngs from Sky UK offers a detailed analysis of each film, including quotes and ratings based on the “Christmas tree rating” system.
- The review covers various aspects such as plot, performances, and overall entertainment value.
The Good: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Starting off with a high note, Disney’s “A Very Jonas Christmas Movie” is the only 2025 release on Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies. The Jonas Brothers find themselves in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to say they won’t get home until they “rediscover their brotherly magic.” The banter between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the uninitiated, while fans will no doubt pick up on lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back to their families using any means of transport necessary.
It’s private planes, trains and automobiles. It’s not an all-time classic after all, but is great for fans and a good start to the day.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄.December 2025
The Fun: Tinsel Town
Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a Hollywood action hero who ends up in panto in Yorkshire. “A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre. His Aladdin cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their reply.
Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases. There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too. Rebel Wilson plays the panto’s choreographer (with a Yorkshire accent), Derek Jacobi plays the theatre stage door manager, Meera Syal plays the director, Jason Manford and Asim Chaudhry play the ugly sisters, Lucien Laviscount plays the prince, Katherine Ryan plays Brad’s agent, and Danny Dyer plays Danny Dyer. It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄.December 2025
The So-Bad-It’s-Good: Christmas Karma and Stuffed
“Christmas Karma,” starring Danny Dyer as a singing black cab driver, is a take on the familiar Christmas Scrooge story. The miserly Mr Sood, played by Kunal Nayyar from “The Big Bang Theory,” is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. This Indian Scrooge is at least different from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is flat – a problem when he’s so central to everything.
Meanwhile, “Stuffed” is an 60-minute comedy-drama special on BBC One that stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “doesn’t really do Christmas.” After he gets an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife persuades him to blow the money on a family trip to Lapland. There’s just one problem – he discovers 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: 🎄🎄.December 2025
The Rom-Com: Champagne Problems
A Christmas film where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the background – Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its raison d’etre. Ambitious executive Sydney (Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to do a deal to buy a champagne business. En route, she meets a guy in a book store who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.
Journalist and author Olly Richards recently told the Bah Humbug Christmas film podcast this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels. The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄.December 2025
The Scottish Adventure: A Scottish Christmas Secret
Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the attempts of his dad (The Inbetweeners’ James Buckley) to tell him otherwise. The truth is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of Sir Stephen Fry, Hannah Fry, Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Jason Fox. It’s low-key but charming, and good viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄.December 2025
The Classic Reunion: Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a quarrelling American family who come back together 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 saying: “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 jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄.December 2025
The Quirky Secret: A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted – and highly entertaining – festive fodder. It’s a tale as old as time, or as old as the Hallmark Channel at least. An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher who travels from LA to the Scottish Highlands (with sister Patsy Kensit back at home) and tracks down an author who must clear his writer’s block, solve a family mystery, and save the local castle from Duke Hamish. Cheap and cheesy is by no means a bad thing for a Christmas film and it’s given me a more unashamedly festive feeling than most of the others.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄 but 🎄🎄🎄.December 2025
The Directorial Debut: Goodbye June
Kate Winslet’s directorial debut, “Goodbye June,” stars Dame Helen Mirren, Toni Collette, Timothy Spall, Andrea Riseborough and Johnny Flynn. It’s not your typical feelgood festive fun. Dame Helen’s character has cancer and may or may not make it to Christmas.
It’s an intimate family drama with top-drawer performances. I was ready to be cynical about the fact it was written by Winslet’s son Joe Anders when he was 19, a nepotastic endeavour, but the script is skilled and sensitive, if sentimental. You wouldn’t put it on for an easy Christmas comfort watch, but it does have levity and warmth as well as tear-jerking realism, so stands out from the festive films that are as gaudy and hollow as a bauble.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄.December 2025
The Final Verdict
Despite the huge variety, they’re all about journeys of self-discovery and the appreciation of what’s important in life. Are there any future classics? Probably not.
I’m finally feeling festive enough to put up the Christmas tree, though, and will decorate it with Die Hard on in the background.
The review covers a range of 2025 Christmas films, from family-friendly romances to quirky adventures, providing insights into their entertainment value and overall quality. Each film is rated based on its performance, plot, and audience appeal, offering viewers a guide for their holiday viewing choices.
