Marathon Viewing The Latest Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to slob out on the couch and demolish a packet of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a selection of new holiday movies hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the Christmas spirit, I watched as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

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

The Jonas Brothers find themselves stuck in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are hindered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their brotherly magic.”

The back-and-forth between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the non-fan, while followers will no doubt catch lots of references as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not legendary, but is great for fans and a positive 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

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

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin cast-mates tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their retort. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming side stories, and the ensemble is excellent, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at another season, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face pops 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 musical taxi operator who picks up Mr Sood, the modern take 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 the filmmaker behind 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 South Asian reinterpretation is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a network's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he gets an large festive windfall at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he finds out there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to pay back the remainder.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

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 environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she encounters a guy in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently stated 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 required heartwarming sensation.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

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 (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The truth is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a quarrelling American family who gather for the holidays—including other 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 stating: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new offering in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—seasonal comfort food.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher