Devouring 2025's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

‘Tis the time of year to lounge on the couch and consume a packet of festive treats in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a selection of latest holiday movies aims to become part of our holiday traditions—maybe even earning a place alongside enduring classics 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 embrace the holiday mood, I binged as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, optimistically, on a good foot. This release is the only 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band find themselves stuck in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an evil Santa, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the uninitiated, while fans will no doubt notice lots of references as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity cast a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin co-stars inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their reply. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some very funny lines, some heartwarming sub-plots, and the ensemble is excellent, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer shows up at the outset of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

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 The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the director of Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted 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 regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he learns there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to pay back the difference.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the background—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

High-powered businesswoman 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 fellow in a book store who vows to show her a festive Paris.

An expert recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the required cozy feelings.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, despite the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The truth is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s low-key but endearing, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a bickering American family who reunite for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “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 mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher