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

It is the season to relax on the couch and demolish a tin of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

As always, a crop of new seasonal stories aims to become part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even earning a place alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the holiday mood, I marathoned as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, hopefully, on a positive note. This release is the exclusive 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band end up stuck in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the casual viewer, while devotees will no doubt catch lots of references as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity roped into a pantomime.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and older lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.

His pantomime fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their retort. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming side stories, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face appears at the start of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who collects 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 the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least different from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s time for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

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

There’s just one issue—he finds out there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to return the excess.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she encounters a man in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

An expert recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, in spite of the attempts 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 guidance of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s gentle but sweet, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a dysfunctional American family who come back together 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 saying: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in reality it’s really a jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new entry in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

It’s a story as well-worn: An American woman goes on a quest to a far-off wintery locale and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher