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

It is the season to relax on the sofa and devour a packet of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a poor film, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a crop of new holiday movies hopes to be part of our festive viewing—perhaps even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Thus, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, ideally, on a good foot. This release is the exclusive 2025 title on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band are trapped in the UK after finishing their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will no doubt pick up on lots of references as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who will have to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a Hollywood star roped into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

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

There are some hilarious moments, some heartwarming sub-plots, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

A familiar face pops up at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the next movie straight. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least distinct from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There’s time for a network's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him spending the sum on a vacation to Lapland.

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

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 environment of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to do a deal for a champagne business. On the way, she runs into a guy in a book store who offers to show her a festive Paris.

An expert recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The secret is to be discovered, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s low-key but charming, and ideal viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning Christmas classics like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before stating: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in execution it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher