Devouring The Latest Holiday Movies: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

‘Tis the season to relax on the couch and devour a tin of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a batch of latest seasonal stories aims to become part of our festive viewing—potentially even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the festive feeling, I binged as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, optimistically, on a good foot. This release is the sole 2025 title on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.

The popular band find themselves stranded in the UK after concluding their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an evil Santa, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”

The back-and-forth between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the uninitiated, while followers will certainly notice lots of references as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is excellent for devotees and a positive start to the day.

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star cast a "panto".

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. One can imagine their retort. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit tacky at a different time, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

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

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 familiar story unfolds as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least distinct from all the others, but sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is lifeless—a problem when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he gets an large festive windfall at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money 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 pay back the difference.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

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

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she meets a fellow in a book store who vows to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a touch of class and gives the necessary warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, in spite of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The truth is out there, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s low-key but endearing, and perfect viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning classic festive films 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 reality it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new entry in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher