Devouring 2025's Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the season to relax on the sofa and consume a packet of festive treats in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of fresh Christmas films hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the holiday mood, I marathoned as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a positive note. This film is the exclusive 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers end up stuck in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to declare they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The back-and-forth between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the non-fan, while fans will certainly catch lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor roped into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and ageing star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. One can imagine their retort. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some very funny lines, some touching sub-plots, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor shows up at the outset of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the next movie straight. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up Mr Sood, the modern take 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 the director of Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts 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 regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he learns there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to reimburse the excess.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she encounters a fellow in a bookshop who promises to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The truth is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a panel of well-known figures.

It’s understated but charming, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional American family who reunite 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 saying: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher