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

It is the season to lounge on the couch and consume a packet of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

Once again, a selection of fresh Christmas films strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the festive feeling, I binged as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, optimistically, on a high. This release is the exclusive 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 festive features of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stranded in the UK after finishing their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the casual viewer, while fans will no doubt pick up on lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity tricked into a pantomime.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their retort. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some touching side stories, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit tacky at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face shows up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

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 The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale develops as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least unique from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There’s time for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash on a vacation 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 devise a plan for how to return the excess.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she meets a fellow in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a touch of class and gives the required cozy feelings.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, in spite of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The truth is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known experts and celebrities.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling American family who gather for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer begins by referencing classic festive films 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 execution it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a tale as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher