Marathon Viewing The Latest Holiday Movies: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.
It is the season to relax on the couch and devour a box of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.
This year, a crop of latest seasonal stories hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—potentially even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).
So, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the Christmas spirit, I binged as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.
7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Kicking off, hopefully, on a positive note. This is the only 2025 entry on a popular review site's list of the top 100 festive features of all time.
The musical trio find themselves stuck in the UK after concluding their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an evil Santa, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”
The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the non-fan, while followers will no doubt catch lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.
It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.
It’s not legendary, but is great for fans and a solid start to the day.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who will have to sit through it.
Next: A Star in Panto
Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity cast a "panto".
“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has tricked him into thinking he’s performing in renowned British drama.
His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. You can guess their reply. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional British theatre traditions.
There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming side stories, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.
It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit tacky at another season, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
A New Spin on Scrooge
An actor pops up at the start of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?
This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the apparitions 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 sadly he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Noon: A BBC Special
There’s time for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “isn't big on Christmas.”
But after he is awarded an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.
There’s just one problem—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.
Enjoyable but forgettable.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
A Classy Netflix Romance
This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.
Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she meets a guy in a literary haven who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.
A critic recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.
The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is very good too.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas
Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, in spite of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.
The truth is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a panel of well-known figures.
It’s low-key but charming, and perfect viewing while expecting Santa to visit.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a dysfunctional American family who gather for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress 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 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 mash-up of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.
It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
