Devouring This Year's Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the time of year to slob out on the couch and devour a tin of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a selection of fresh seasonal stories aims to become part of our holiday traditions—potentially even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the holiday mood, I binged as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a positive note. This is the sole 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

The musical trio find themselves stuck in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the casual viewer, while fans will certainly catch lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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 must sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor tricked into a "panto".

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

His Aladdin cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their response. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some heartwarming storylines, and the ensemble is excellent, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor pops up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the next movie straight. Could this be a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who collects Mr Sood, the newest interpretation on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, 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 portrayal is flat—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to pay back the excess.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to do a deal for a champagne business. On the way, she runs into a fellow in a bookshop who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert recently declared this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

The truth is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s gentle but charming, and ideal viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a dysfunctional American family who reunite for the holidays—including other 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 saying: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in practice it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.

It’s a story as well-worn: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher