Devouring This Year's Christmas Films: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to slob out on the sofa and devour a tin of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of fresh Christmas films aims to become part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a helpful attempt to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the holiday mood, I binged as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, ideally, on a positive note. This film is the only 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The musical trio find themselves trapped in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while devotees will no doubt notice lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is superb 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.

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor roped into a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their reply. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer shows up at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least distinct from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There's just enough time for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy 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 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 figure out how to pay back the remainder.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the setting—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to do a deal for a champagne business. On the way, she meets a guy in a book store who vows to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a touch of class and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The secret is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the guidance of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: 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 opens by name-dropping holiday staples 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 jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—festive fodder.

It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher