Devouring 2025's Christmas Films: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the time of year to slob out on the sofa and consume a tin of mince pies in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of latest holiday movies strives to join part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the festive feeling, I watched as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, ideally, on a positive note. This is the only 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The musical trio are stranded in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the non-fan, while fans will undoubtedly catch lots of references as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is great for fans and a solid start to the day.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who are obliged to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star roped into a traditional British stage show.

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

His pantomime fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their response. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching storylines, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit tacky at another season, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer shows up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 well-known tale unfolds as the miserly 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 different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he gets an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to reimburse the difference.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the background—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she meets a guy in a book store who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a festive dalliance with a touch of class and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is notable too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

The secret is to be discovered, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s gentle but sweet, and ideal viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling American family who gather for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer begins by referencing classic festive films 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 what this is, but in reality it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher