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

‘Tis the season to lounge on the couch and consume a packet of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of fresh Christmas films strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Therefore, in a helpful attempt to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, optimistically, on a good foot. This is the only 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The Jonas Brothers end up trapped in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the uninitiated, while devotees will undoubtedly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not legendary, but is great for devotees and a solid start to the day.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 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 movie actor tricked into a "panto".

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His pantomime co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their response. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face pops up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 classic narrative develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least unique from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There’s time for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he receives an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him splurging the cash 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 devise a plan for how to pay back the difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

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 setting of the film rather than its core purpose—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. During her travels, she runs into a guy in a book store who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert recently declared this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The answer is out there, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known figures.

It’s gentle but charming, and perfect viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing Christmas classics 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 practice it’s really a jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

It’s a story as old as time: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher