Devouring 2025's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the season to slob out on the sofa and demolish a box of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

This year, a selection of new seasonal stories strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the holiday mood, I marathoned as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, hopefully, on a positive note. This release is the sole 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The popular band are stuck in the UK after concluding their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the casual viewer, while devotees will no doubt catch lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is excellent for devotees and a positive start to the day.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who will have to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor tricked into a pantomime.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. One can imagine their retort. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some touching sub-plots, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer pops up at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the next movie straight. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least different from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he discovers there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to return the excess.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the background—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she encounters a man in a book store who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a dash of elegance and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The answer is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known figures.

It’s gentle but charming, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning classic festive films 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 practice it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally takes center stage.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.

It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman goes on a quest to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher