Devouring This Year's Festive Features: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.
‘Tis the season to slob out on the sofa and consume a box of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.
This year, a selection of new seasonal stories aims to become part of our holiday traditions—maybe even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).
Thus, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.
Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Starting, ideally, on a high. This film is the only 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.
The musical trio find themselves trapped in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”
The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the uninitiated, while devotees will certainly pick up on lots of references as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.
It’s a travelogue of mishaps.
It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is excellent for devotees and a good 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 celebrity roped into a traditional British stage show.
“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.
His Aladdin fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. One can imagine their response. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.
There are some very funny lines, some touching storylines, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.
It’s the type of film that would be a bit tacky at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma
Danny Dyer shows up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?
This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up Mr Sood, the modern take on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Mr Sood is played by a star of Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses 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 Indian Scrooge is at least distinct from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Lunchtime: Stuffed
There's just enough time for a channel's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”
But after he gets an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.
There’s just one problem—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to pay back the remainder.
Pleasant yet unmemorable.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems
This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.
Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. On the way, she runs into a guy in a bookshop who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.
A commentator recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.
The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is notable too.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas
Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, in spite of the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the truth.
The answer is to be discovered, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.
It’s understated but charming, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional American family who gather for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee 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 combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—seasonal comfort food.
It’s a narrative as well-worn: An American woman journeys to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
