'Tis the season to slob out on the sofa and demolish a packet of mince pies in front of a good movie, or a bad movie - or a movie that's so bad it's good. This year, as ever, a crop of new Christmas films are hoping to be part of our festive viewing - and perhaps even join the ranks of enduring classics alongside the likes of Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually and Die Hard (don't start). So, in an effort to bring you a vital public service by sorting the crackers from the turkeys, and in an attempt to get myself into the Christmas spirit, I binged as many new Christmas films as possible in a day. This is the only 2025 release on Rotten Tomatoes' list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time. The Jonas Brothers find themselves stuck in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must get home for Christmas.

Last week, to formally consecrate the beginning of the holiday season, my fiancée threw on Christmas With the Kranks. The wretched 2004 Tim Allen film notched an impressively bad 5 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with most critics complaining about the screenplay's awkward marriage of lifeless Middle American sentimentality with the sort of visual gags you might find in Progressive commercials. Christmas With the Kranks is not making the Criterion Collection anytime soon, and I think it's fair to say that there are better ways to spend a winter evening, but if you value the season like we do--and intend to have a Christmas movie on-screen at all times until New Year's--then you must ration the heavy hitters of the genre for the premium slots on the calendar. Or, in other words, if you want to watch Home Alone on Dec. 22, then you might be forced to spend a night with Tim Allen on Dec. 5. We all know what the classics are. The Mount Rushmore of Christmas movies, at least according to mainstream millennial opinion, are Elf, A Charlie Brown Christmas, the Chuck Jones–animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and the aforementioned Home Alone.

From Richard Attenborough in'Miracle on 34th Street' to Kurt Russell in'The Christmas Chronicles' a number of famous actors have taken on the role of Santa Claus in blockbuster hits through the years. But who would take on the leading role if Hollywood cast a new movie featuring Father Christmas? To answer this burning question, MailOnline turned to ChatGPT. While the AI bot says that casting for a dream Santa would depend on the tone and style of the film, it suggests five actors who could take on the role. So, do you agree with its star-studded suggestions?

In a year where Radio City is shuttered by the pandemic, Netflix's Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey is the closest thing we have to a big Christmas spectacular. It's a cross between The Greatest Showman and Cats, bundled in shiny Christmas wrapping paper, with none other than John Legend as one of the minds behind the many songs packed into its two hours. At the center of that festive mishmash is an inventor named Jeronicus Jangle, a sentient doll, and a robot that, like Tinkerbell, is powered by belief. However, unlike Cats, David E. Talbert's movie is a coherent, compelling story that doesn't require booze or any other form of pre-gaming to be fully enjoyed. It's the filmic equivalent of the high that comes from eating way too many candy canes and drinking way too much hot chocolate.