Devouring The Latest Holiday Movies: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

‘Tis the time of year to relax on the couch and consume a packet of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a batch of new seasonal stories aims to become part of our festive viewing—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Therefore, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the holiday mood, I watched as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

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

The Jonas Brothers end up trapped in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the uninitiated, while fans will certainly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who are obliged to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a Hollywood star tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has tricked 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. It's easy to predict their reply. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

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

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor appears at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Could this be a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who encounters 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash on a holiday 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 devise a plan for how to pay back the remainder.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she runs into a guy in a bookshop who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently declared this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

The truth is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - 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 begins by referencing holiday staples 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 what this is, but in practice it’s really a mash-up of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher