🔗 Share this article Devouring This Year's Holiday Movies: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good. It is the season to lounge on the sofa and consume a packet of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific. Once again, a batch of fresh holiday movies hopes to be part of our festive viewing—maybe even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it). Thus, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the holiday mood, I binged as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day. Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie Starting, hopefully, on a good foot. This film is the sole 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time. The Jonas Brothers are trapped in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.” The back-and-forth between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the non-fan, while followers will no doubt pick up on lots of easter eggs as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary. It’s private planes, trains and automobiles. It’s not legendary, but is great for devotees and a solid start to the day. Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who will have to sit through it. 8.45am - Tinsel Town A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star roped into a pantomime. “A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre. His Aladdin co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. One can imagine their retort. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases. There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming side stories, and the ensemble is brilliant, too. It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a lot of fun at Christmas. Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄 A New Spin on Scrooge A familiar face shows up at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Could this be a budding festive ritual? This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters Mr Sood, the modern take 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 filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George. This cultural adaptation is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything. Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄 12.04pm - Stuffed There’s time for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.” But after he is awarded an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a family trip 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 devise a plan for how to reimburse the excess. Enjoyable but forgettable. Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄 1.12pm - Champagne Problems This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same. High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she runs into a guy in a book store who offers to show her a festive Paris. An expert recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the required heartwarming sensation. The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is very good too. Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄 A Charming Quest Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise. The truth is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities. It’s gentle but sweet, and perfect viewing while waiting for Santa to visit. Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄 A Star-Studded Family Drama Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who reunite for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary. Pfeiffer begins by referencing classic festive films like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “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 at last takes center stage. Festive score: 🎄🎄 6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—festive fodder. It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance. In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
It is the season to lounge on the sofa and consume a packet of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific. Once again, a batch of fresh holiday movies hopes to be part of our festive viewing—maybe even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it). Thus, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the holiday mood, I binged as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day. Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie Starting, hopefully, on a good foot. This film is the sole 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time. The Jonas Brothers are trapped in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.” The back-and-forth between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the non-fan, while followers will no doubt pick up on lots of easter eggs as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary. It’s private planes, trains and automobiles. It’s not legendary, but is great for devotees and a solid start to the day. Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who will have to sit through it. 8.45am - Tinsel Town A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star roped into a pantomime. “A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre. His Aladdin co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. One can imagine their retort. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases. There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming side stories, and the ensemble is brilliant, too. It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a lot of fun at Christmas. Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄 A New Spin on Scrooge A familiar face shows up at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Could this be a budding festive ritual? This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters Mr Sood, the modern take 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 filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George. This cultural adaptation is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything. Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄 12.04pm - Stuffed There’s time for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.” But after he is awarded an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a family trip 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 devise a plan for how to reimburse the excess. Enjoyable but forgettable. Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄 1.12pm - Champagne Problems This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same. High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she runs into a guy in a book store who offers to show her a festive Paris. An expert recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the required heartwarming sensation. The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is very good too. Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄 A Charming Quest Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise. The truth is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities. It’s gentle but sweet, and perfect viewing while waiting for Santa to visit. Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄 A Star-Studded Family Drama Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who reunite for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary. Pfeiffer begins by referencing classic festive films like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “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 at last takes center stage. Festive score: 🎄🎄 6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—festive fodder. It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance. In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher