Devouring 2025's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

‘Tis the season to slob out on the couch and consume a tin of mince pies in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

Once again, a batch of latest holiday movies aims to become part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to embrace the holiday mood, I marathoned as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, ideally, on a good foot. This is the only 2025 title on a famous website's list of the top 100 festive features of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the non-fan, while devotees will certainly notice lots of references as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor tricked into a pantomime.

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

His Aladdin co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. You can guess their retort. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching side stories, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer shows up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second consecutive movie. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 the director of Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a channel's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he receives an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he discovers there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to return the difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard 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 Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the persuasion of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

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

It’s gentle but endearing, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - 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 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 the premise, but in reality it’s really a mash-up of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but happily here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman goes on a quest to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher