Devouring The Latest Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.
It is the time of year to lounge on the couch and consume a box of mince pies in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.
This year, a batch of fresh holiday movies hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—potentially even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).
Therefore, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.
Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Starting, hopefully, on a high. This is the exclusive 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.
The musical trio are stranded in the UK after finishing their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are hindered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”
The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will certainly notice lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.
It’s a journey of epic proportions.
It’s not legendary, but is excellent for devotees and a good start to the day.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who are obliged to sit through it.
Late Morning: Tinsel Town
Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a Hollywood star roped into a "panto".
“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and older lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.
His Aladdin fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their retort. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.
There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming storylines, and the ensemble is excellent, too.
It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma
An actor shows up at the outset of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a budding festive ritual?
This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters Mr Sood, the modern take on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Mr Sood is played by an actor from Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the director of Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.
This cultural adaptation is at least unique from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Noon: A BBC Special
There’s time for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”
But after he is awarded an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.
There’s just one snag—he discovers there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to return the difference.
Pleasant yet unmemorable.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
A Classy Netflix Romance
This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.
Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to do a deal for a champagne business. During her travels, she meets a man in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.
A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.
The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is very good too.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
A Charming Quest
Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.
The secret is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.
It’s understated but sweet, and ideal viewing while expecting Santa to visit.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional American family who reunite for the holidays—including fellow 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 declaring: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”
So that’s the premise, but in reality it’s really a jumble of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.
It’s a tale as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up finding romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher