Devouring 2025's Festive Features: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

‘Tis the time of year to lounge on the couch and devour a tin of mince pies in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

Once again, a batch of fresh seasonal stories strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the Christmas spirit, I binged as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, optimistically, on a good foot. This is the only 2025 title on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band are stuck in the UK after concluding their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the non-fan, while fans will undoubtedly pick up on lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is excellent for devotees and a good start to the day.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who will have to sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity tricked into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their retort. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some hilarious moments, some heartwarming storylines, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit naff at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor shows up at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the next movie straight. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the modern take 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 filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative unfolds as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least different from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a vacation to Lapland.

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its main point—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to do a deal for a champagne business. During her travels, she encounters a man in a book store who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A commentator recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The secret is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a group of well-known figures.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing 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 unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the packed genre of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as well-worn: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher