Devouring This Year's Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.
It is the time of year to relax on the sofa and devour a tin of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.
Once again, a crop of fresh seasonal stories hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even earning a place alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).
So, in a vital public service to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to get into the festive feeling, I binged as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.
First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick
Beginning, optimistically, on a positive note. This is the exclusive 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.
The popular band end up stranded in the UK after concluding their international trek 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 “rekindle their familial spark.”
The repartee between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the uninitiated, while fans will certainly catch lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.
It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.
It’s not an all-time classic, but is superb for devotees and a good start to the day.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 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 celebrity cast a pantomime.
“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older lead Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.
His Aladdin co-stars inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. One can imagine their retort. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.
There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the ensemble is cracking, too.
It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit tacky at another season, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
10.19am - Christmas Karma
An actor pops 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 singing black cab driver who picks up Mr Sood, the newest interpretation on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Mr Sood is played by a star of Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s 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 South Asian reinterpretation is at least distinct from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
Noon: A BBC Special
There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”
But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.
There’s just one snag—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to return the remainder.
Pleasant yet unmemorable.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
1.12pm - Champagne Problems
This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the setting—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.
High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she encounters a fellow in a literary haven who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.
An expert recently stated this is the finest 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 heartwarming sensation.
The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is notable too.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas
Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, regardless of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.
The secret is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known experts and celebrities.
It’s low-key but endearing, and perfect viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄
A Star-Studded Family Drama
Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a quarrelling American family who come back together for the holidays—including other Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.
Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping 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 unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”
So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally takes center stage.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
Formulaic Fun
The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.
It’s a tale as well-worn: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
