Devouring The Latest Christmas Films: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the season to relax on the sofa and consume a tin of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

This year, a crop of new holiday movies strives to join part of our festive viewing—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the festive feeling, I watched as many fresh holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, optimistically, on a positive note. This film is the sole 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after concluding their international trek 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 “rediscover their familial spark.”

The banter between the arguing trio is amusing even for the non-fan, while fans will undoubtedly pick up on lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor cast a "panto".

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and aging lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His pantomime fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their response. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some heartwarming storylines, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor pops up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the next movie straight. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects 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 filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the miserly 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 unfortunately he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There’s time for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the backdrop—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its main point—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. During her travels, she encounters a guy in a literary haven who promises to show her a festive Paris.

An expert recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is very good too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The secret is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

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 opens by name-dropping holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “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 jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher