Devouring 2025's Holiday Movies: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the time of year to slob out on the couch and devour a tin of festive treats in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

Once again, a crop of new holiday movies hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a helpful attempt to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I binged as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, ideally, on a positive note. This release is the only 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

The Jonas Brothers find themselves stranded in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The repartee between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while fans will certainly pick up on 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 great for devotees and a solid start to the day.

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their response. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

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

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor appears at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up 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 director of Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative develops as the stingy Mr Sood is visited by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he discovers there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to reimburse the remainder.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she runs into a man in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

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

The truth is out there, 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 endearing, and perfect viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning 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 real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in execution it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the packed genre of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

It’s a story as old as time: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher