Devouring The Latest Holiday Movies: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.
It is the time of year to lounge on the sofa and demolish a tin of festive treats in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.
Once again, a batch of latest holiday movies strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).
Thus, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the holiday mood, I marathoned as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.
7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Beginning, optimistically, on a high. This is the only 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.
The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their brotherly magic.”
The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the casual viewer, while fans will no doubt pick up on lots of references as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary.
It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.
It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is excellent for devotees and a solid start to the day.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who must sit through it.
8.45am - Tinsel Town
Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity tricked into a traditional British stage show.
“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and aging action hero Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.
His Aladdin cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their response. Except if you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.
There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.
It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma
An actor appears at the beginning of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second consecutive movie. Is this a new Christmas tradition?
This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who collects 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 classic narrative develops as the stingy Mr Sood is visited 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 regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s portrayal is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Noon: A BBC Special
There's just enough time for a network's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “avoids Christmas.”
But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.
There’s just one snag—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to reimburse the remainder.
Fun while it lasts but not lasting.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
1.12pm - Champagne Problems
This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the setting—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 sent to a country estate to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she encounters a man in a book store who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.
An expert recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a touch of class and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.
The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is very good too.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄
A Charming Quest
Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.
The answer is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities.
It’s gentle but sweet, and ideal viewing while expecting Santa to visit.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who reunite for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.
Pfeiffer begins by referencing holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”
So that’s the concept, but in execution it’s really a jumble of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Formulaic Fun
The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.
It’s a tale as well-worn: An American woman goes on a quest to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher