Devouring 2025's Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.
‘Tis the season to slob out on the sofa and consume a packet of mince pies in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.
As always, a batch of fresh Christmas films strives to join part of our festive viewing—maybe even earning a place alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).
Therefore, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I watched as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.
First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick
Kicking off, hopefully, on a positive note. This is the only 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.
The Jonas Brothers are stranded in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”
The repartee between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly notice lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.
It’s a journey of epic proportions.
It’s not legendary, but is great for fans and a positive start to the day.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who are obliged to sit through it.
8.45am - Tinsel Town
A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity cast a "panto".
“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.
His Aladdin fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their response. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.
There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the ensemble is cracking, too.
It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
A New Spin on Scrooge
An actor shows up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Could this be a new Christmas tradition?
This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.
This Indian Scrooge is at least unique from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a problem when he’s so the focal point.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Noon: A BBC Special
There's just enough time for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”
But after he receives an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a vacation to Lapland.
There’s just one issue—he learns there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to return the excess.
Fun while it lasts but not lasting.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems
This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the background—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.
Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. During her travels, she runs into a fellow in a literary haven who vows to show her the holidays in the City of Light.
A commentator recently claimed this is the finest 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 cozy feelings.
The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
A Charming Quest
Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, in spite of the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.
The truth is to be discovered, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known experts and celebrities.
It’s low-key but sweet, and good viewing while expecting Santa to visit.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
A Star-Studded Family Drama
Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a quarrelling American family who reunite for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee 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 execution it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new entry in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—seasonal comfort food.
It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
