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

It is the time of year to slob out on the couch and demolish a box of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of latest holiday movies hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—potentially even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the holiday mood, I watched as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, ideally, on a high. This film is the exclusive 2025 entry on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The musical trio find themselves trapped in the UK after finishing their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The banter between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the non-fan, while followers will undoubtedly pick up on lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is excellent for fans and a good start to the day.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who must sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. You can guess their reply. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some great jokes, some touching storylines, and the ensemble is cracking, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit tacky at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor appears at the beginning of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second consecutive movie. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up 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 well-known tale develops as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted 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 captivating and Nayyar’s portrayal is wooden—a problem when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) persuades him blowing the money 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 determine how to reimburse the excess.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the setting—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she meets a man in a literary haven who promises to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently declared this is the best new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The answer is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known figures.

It’s understated but sweet, and perfect viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional American family who gather for the holidays—including fellow acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping holiday staples 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 concept, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher