Binge-Watching The Latest Christmas Films: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.
‘Tis the season to relax on the couch and demolish a box of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.
This year, a selection of latest holiday movies aims to become part of our holiday traditions—maybe even finding a spot alongside timeless staples 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 find the festive feeling, I watched as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.
Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Kicking off, hopefully, on a good foot. This is the only 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the top 100 festive features of all time.
The popular band find themselves stuck in the UK after finishing their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”
The banter between the arguing trio is amusing even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly notice lots of references as they endeavor to get back using every mode of travel possible.
It’s a travelogue of mishaps.
It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is great for devotees and a good start to the day.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who are obliged to sit through it.
8.45am - Tinsel Town
Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity tricked into a "panto".
“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in renowned British drama.
His pantomime co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. You can guess their response. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.
There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.
It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma
Danny Dyer appears at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Is this a new Christmas tradition?
This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects 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 the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.
This cultural adaptation is at least unique from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
12.04pm - Stuffed
There’s time for a network's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”
But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.
There’s just one snag—he discovers 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 excess.
Fun while it lasts but not lasting.
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 raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.
Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. En route, she meets a fellow in a literary haven who vows to show her a festive Paris.
A critic recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a dash of elegance and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.
The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is notable too.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas
Sixteen-year-old 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 the reality.
The answer is to be discovered, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known figures.
It’s low-key but sweet, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a quarrelling American family who come back together for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.
Pfeiffer starts by mentioning Christmas classics like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”
So that’s the premise, but in reality it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—seasonal comfort food.
It’s a tale as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
