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

It is the time of year to slob out on the couch and consume a box of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a crop of new holiday movies aims to become part of our holiday traditions—potentially even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the holiday mood, I watched as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, hopefully, on a good foot. This release is the sole 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The musical trio end up stranded in the UK after finishing their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their brotherly magic.”

The repartee between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the uninitiated, while devotees will certainly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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 relatives who will have to sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor roped into a pantomime.

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

His Aladdin fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. One can imagine their reply. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some touching storylines, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer pops up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Is this a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who picks up Mr Sood, the latest spin on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the director of Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions 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 unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There's just enough 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) convinces him spending the sum on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—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 difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the setting—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. En route, she meets a man in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently declared this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, in spite of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The secret is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s understated but charming, and good viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a dysfunctional American family who gather for the holidays—including other Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

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

So that’s what this is, but in reality it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new entry in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and highly entertaining—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a tale as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher