THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE CHAOTIC: A GUIDE TO 2025’S NEW FESTIVE FILMS

When I talk about chaotic Christmas films, this is what I mean. 

Taylor (Alexandra Breckenridge, Virgin River) is a single mum, former punk rocker and a supervisor at a cookie factory, but when she loses her job, and her daughter gets into a snowboarding academy, she applies to become Father Christmas at the local ski lodge to help pay for the fees. 

Cue: a full makeover scene where her brother dresses her up as an old man, including, somehow, creating a full rubber face mask but also a stomach filled with lentils (which we later learn is a terribly traumatising idea). 

Of course, she gets the job (although I would watch the film where Taylor took revenge because she wasn’t suitable). And there are three big problems: her colleague (Tia Mowry) wants her out, and who can blame her, because secondly, Taylor’s terrible at being Santa. And finally, her boss (a misunderstood trust fund baby) is also the man she’s been flirting with (to clarify: not when dressed as the big man – that would be a whole other film). And things get really complicated when both Taylor and Santa get invited to the same Christmas party…

Watch My Secret Santa now on Netflix 

Kate (Alicia Silverstone) and Everett (Oliver Hudson) are one-time childhood sweethearts, turned soon-to-be-divorced adults, who decide to spend one last Christmas together for the sake of the family. 

But when Everett introduces his new girlfriend (Jameela Jamil), Kate has to reckon with everything she gave up as a young woman for her ex-husband. However, a flirtation with a hot younger man might help. 

Melissa Joan Hart also stars, providing an extra hit of nostalgia for millennials, which, frankly, we’ve never needed more. 

Watch A Merry Little Ex-Mas now on Netflix 

A classic of the genre! Minka Kelly plays Sydney, a driven American exec who is in Paris to seal a deal to buy some champagne vineyards. 

On her night off, she meets and sleeps with a handsome Frenchman, and the next morning discovers that – quelle surprise – said handsome Frenchman is the vineyard owner’s son. And he doesn’t want to sell the family estate to an evil corporation. And said handsome Frenchman’s dad wants her to spend Christmas with them to prove she’s got what it takes. 

I’m just out here imagining calling my mum to tell her I won’t be there to make the pigs in blankets this year because a family I’ve never met has invited me to their castle to work all through the holidays. 

Watch Champagne Problems now on Netflix 

I started the trailer with a healthy dose of scepticism, but somehow I found myself chortling at least three times – not least when Joe tries to fly a plane, saying: “Guys, I’ve got this. I know Glen Powell from Top Gun” – and grinning widely at the screen in the hope that the brothers do make it home to Priyanka and Danielle. 

Watch A Very Jonas Christmas now on Disney+

Sophia (Olivia Holt) is overworked and underpaid. When she resorts to stealing from her horrible boss, Maxwell Sterling (Peter Serafinowicz), she is caught by Nick (Connor Swindells), who wants revenge on Sterling for ripping him off. 

They decide to join forces to steal £500,000 from Sterling by any means necessary, including trying to romance his wife (Lucy Punch). But the scheming soon leads to something a little more romantic. A future therapy session waiting to happen, no doubt. 

Watch Jingle Bell Heist now on Netflix 

A past-his-prime action hero (Kiefer Sutherland) wants to be taken seriously, so he heads to England to do some theatre. But when he gets there, he discovers it’s actually a pantomime (oh, yes it is, etc. – on repeat), and he’ll be playing Buttons. There, he meets Jill, the show’s non-nonsense choreographer, played by Rebel Wilson. 

A mind-boggling line-up of Katherine Ryan, Derek Jacobi, Mawaan Rizwan, Asim Chaudhry, Danny Dyer, Lucien Laviscount and Meera Syal also star.

Watch Tinsel Town now on Sky 

Michelle Pfeiffer (I’m as surprised as you are to be writing that) takes the lead in this ensemble cast that also boasts Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dominic Sessa, Danielle Brooks, Devery Jacobs, Havana Rose Liu, Maude Apatow and Eva Longoria.

Pfeiffer plays Claire, the family matriarch, who holds Christmas together every year. But when her family forgets to take her on a festive outing (that she organised), she decides to take an adventure of her own, where she learns what happens when you put yourself first. 

A lesson for us all…

Watch Oh. What. Fun now on Prime Video

Forget the usual festive film tropes: Goodbye June is where things get more emotional and darkly funny. 

Directed by Kate Winslet, she also stars as one of four siblings (alongside Toni Colette, Johnny Flynn and Andrea Riseborough) who are forced to come together during the holidays when their mother, June (Helen Mirren), falls ill. And when June learns of their despair, she tries to orchestrate her own decline. 

Watch Goodbye June in cinemas and on Netflix on 24 December

It’s already been described as “the worst film since Cats”, so consider me intrigued about this take on Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha directs the story of Mr Sood (played by Big Bang Theory star Kunal Nayyar) as he encounters the ghosts of Christmas past (Eva Longoria), Christmas present (Billy Porter) and Christmas future (Boy George) in modern London – accompanied by Hugh Bonneville (as the ghost of Jacob Marley) and Danny Dyer (as a singing cabbie). 

Will this be the All’s Fair of Christmas films? Only time will tell…

Watch Christmas Karma now in cinemas 

Twenty-two years after appearing alongside Will Ferrell in Elf, Zooey Deschanel returns to Christmas in a new romcom. 

She plays one half of a separated couple (alongside Charlie Cox) who take a trip together over the holiday season in an effort to lift their dog, Merv, out of his depression. But they realise (here comes the ‘rom’) that they still have feelings for each other.

Oh Zooey, we’ve all been there (and regretted it): when you bump into an ex in your hometown pub on Christmas Eve and convince yourself it will be different this time. But it never ends well. 

Watch Merv now on Prime Video

Tyler Perry directs this predictable, fun and festive romance. 

Watch Finding Joy now on Prime Video