Devouring 2025's Christmas Films: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the time of year to slob out on the sofa and demolish a packet of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a poor film, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

This year, a batch of latest holiday movies hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—maybe even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Therefore, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the festive feeling, I marathoned as many fresh holiday releases as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, optimistically, on a good foot. This is the exclusive 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their brotherly magic.”

The repartee between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the casual viewer, while fans will no doubt catch lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who must sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star roped into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older star Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their retort. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming storylines, and the ensemble is cracking, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit tacky at a different time, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face shows up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who picks up 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative unfolds as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least distinct from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the remainder.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment 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 dispatched to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. On the way, she encounters a guy in a literary haven who vows to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A commentator recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The truth is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known figures.

It’s understated but charming, and perfect viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing 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 real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in practice it’s really a jumble of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new addition in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher