Devouring 2025's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.
It is the season to slob out on the couch and demolish a tin of mince pies in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.
Once again, a batch of new seasonal stories aims to become part of our holiday traditions—maybe even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).
Therefore, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the festive feeling, I marathoned as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.
Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Starting, hopefully, on a good foot. This release is the sole 2025 entry on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.
The Jonas Brothers are trapped in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”
The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly notice lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using all transportation available.
It’s a travelogue of mishaps.
It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is excellent for fans and a good start to the day.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who will have to sit through it.
8.45am - Tinsel Town
A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor tricked into a traditional British stage show.
“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.
His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their retort. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.
There are some hilarious moments, some touching side stories, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.
It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
10.19am - Christmas Karma
Danny Dyer appears at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?
This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who encounters Mr Sood, the latest spin on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Mr Sood is played by The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the director of Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.
This South Asian reinterpretation is at least distinct from all the others, but sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
12.04pm - Stuffed
Before lunch for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “isn't big on Christmas.”
But after he receives an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.
There’s just one snag—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to return the remainder.
Pleasant yet unmemorable.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
1.12pm - Champagne Problems
This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.
Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a country estate to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she runs into a guy in a bookshop who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.
A critic recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, 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, continues to believe in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.
The answer is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.
It’s low-key but sweet, and perfect viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a dysfunctional American family who gather for the holidays—including fellow acclaimed actress 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 unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”
So that’s the concept, but in execution it’s really a jumble of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new addition in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.
It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up discovering romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
