Devouring The Latest Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.
It is the time of year to lounge on the couch and demolish a tin of festive treats in front of a great film, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.
Once again, a batch of fresh holiday movies hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—potentially even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).
Therefore, in a noble effort to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the festive feeling, I binged as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.
Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Starting, hopefully, on a good foot. This is the only 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.
The popular band find themselves stuck in the UK after concluding their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “find their brotherly magic.”
The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will no doubt catch lots of references as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.
It’s a journey of epic proportions.
It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is excellent for fans and a solid start to the day.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who are obliged to sit through it.
8.45am - Tinsel Town
Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a Hollywood star roped into a pantomime.
“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.
His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their response. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional British theatre traditions.
There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming storylines, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.
It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
A New Spin on Scrooge
Danny Dyer shows up at the outset of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Is this a budding festive ritual?
This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, 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 captivating and Nayyar’s portrayal is lifeless—a problem when he’s so central to everything.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
12.04pm - Stuffed
There's just enough time for a channel's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”
But after he is awarded an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a holiday to Lapland.
There’s just one issue—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to reimburse the remainder.
Pleasant yet unmemorable.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
1.12pm - Champagne Problems
This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.
Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. En route, she runs into a man in a book store who promises to show her the holidays in the City of Light.
A commentator recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.
The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is notable too.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas
Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, in spite of the persuasion of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.
The secret is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.
It’s gentle but sweet, and ideal viewing while expecting Santa to visit.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the head 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 stating: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”
So that’s what this is, but in execution it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
Formulaic Fun
The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.
It’s a story as well-worn: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up finding romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher