Devouring The Latest Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.
‘Tis the time of year to lounge on the sofa and demolish a tin of holiday pastries 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 hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).
Thus, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the festive feeling, I watched as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.
Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Starting, hopefully, on a positive note. This release is the exclusive 2025 title on a famous website's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time.
The popular band end up trapped in the UK after finishing their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are hindered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “find their brotherly magic.”
The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the casual viewer, while followers will no doubt notice lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.
It’s a journey of epic proportions.
It’s not legendary, but is excellent for devotees and a good start to the day.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who must sit through it.
Late Morning: Tinsel Town
A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor roped into a pantomime.
“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.
His Aladdin cast-mates tell him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their response. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.
There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming storylines, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.
It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
10.19am - Christmas Karma
Danny Dyer pops up at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Might this become a budding festive ritual?
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 an actor from Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the director of Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.
This Indian Scrooge is at least different from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
Lunchtime: Stuffed
There’s time 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 is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.
There’s just one issue—he discovers there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to reimburse the excess.
Pleasant yet unmemorable.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems
This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.
High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she encounters a guy in a literary haven who promises to show her a festive Paris.
A critic recently declared this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.
The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
A Charming Quest
Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, regardless of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.
The truth is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known experts and celebrities.
It’s understated but charming, and ideal viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a bickering American family who come back together for the holidays—including other Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.
Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping 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 concept, but in reality it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.
It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
