Devouring 2025's Festive Features: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.
‘Tis the season to slob out on the sofa and demolish a packet of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.
Once again, a selection of new seasonal stories 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 (we won’t debate it).
Therefore, in a vital public service to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to get into the festive feeling, I marathoned as many fresh holiday releases as possible in a single day.
Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Beginning, optimistically, on a positive note. This is the sole 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.
The Jonas Brothers end up stranded in the UK after finishing their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”
The banter between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the casual viewer, while fans will no doubt pick up on lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.
It’s a journey of epic proportions.
It’s not an all-time classic, but is great for fans and a good start to the day.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who are obliged to sit through it.
Next: A Star in Panto
Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity roped into a pantomime.
“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s performing in renowned British drama.
His Aladdin fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their reply. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.
There are some great jokes, some touching storylines, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.
It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
10.19am - Christmas Karma
An actor pops up at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Is this a new Christmas tradition?
This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who picks up 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 stingy Mr Sood is confronted 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 distinct 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.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
12.04pm - Stuffed
Before lunch for a network's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”
But after he receives an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) persuades him splurging the cash on a family trip to Lapland.
There’s just one snag—he finds out there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to reimburse the excess.
Pleasant yet unmemorable.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
A Classy Netflix Romance
This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.
Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she encounters a guy in a bookshop who offers to show her a festive Paris.
A critic recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the required cozy feelings.
The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is very good too.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄
3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas
Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.
The truth is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities.
It’s understated but charming, and good viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
A Star-Studded Family Drama
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 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 unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”
So that’s the concept, but in reality it’s really a mash-up of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—festive fodder.
It’s a narrative as well-worn: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher