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

It is the time of year to slob out on the couch and consume a packet of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a batch of new holiday movies strives to join part of our festive viewing—maybe even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, ideally, on a high. This film is the only 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band are trapped in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an evil Santa, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the uninitiated, while fans will no doubt notice lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin co-stars inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. One can imagine their retort. Except if you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some very funny lines, some touching sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit tacky at a different time, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer pops up at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Is this a budding festive ritual?

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 The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts 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 sadly he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a network's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he receives an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a vacation to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the background—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. During her travels, she runs into a fellow in a book store who promises to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is notable too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

The truth is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known figures.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a quarrelling American family who reunite for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning 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 combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

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