Devouring This Year's Holiday Movies: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the time of year to relax on the sofa and devour a packet of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

As always, a crop of fresh Christmas films strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the holiday mood, I marathoned as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, ideally, on a positive note. This film is the only 2025 title on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band are stranded in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an evil Santa, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the non-fan, while devotees will certainly pick up on lots of references as they endeavor 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 great for devotees and a solid start to the day.

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

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity roped into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their retort. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor appears at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up 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 filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative progresses as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the spirits of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a problem when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s time for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

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

There’s just one issue—he learns there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to pay back the remainder.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the setting—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. En route, she runs into a guy in a literary haven who vows to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently declared this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The secret is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a panel of well-known figures.

It’s low-key but sweet, and perfect viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling American family who come back together for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping holiday staples 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 practice it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman journeys to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher