Binge-Watching This Year's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.
‘Tis the time of year to relax on the sofa and devour a packet of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.
This year, a crop of new Christmas films hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—potentially even earning a place alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).
Therefore, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the Christmas spirit, I watched as many fresh Christmas films as possible in a single day.
First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick
Kicking off, optimistically, on a high. This release is the exclusive 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.
The musical trio find themselves stranded in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “find their brotherly magic.”
The back-and-forth between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the uninitiated, while followers will certainly pick up on lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.
It’s a journey of epic proportions.
It’s not an all-time classic, but is excellent for fans and a solid start to the day.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who must sit through it.
Next: A Star in Panto
Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a Hollywood star tricked into a pantomime.
“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.
His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. You can guess their reply. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional British theatre traditions.
There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.
It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at any other time of year, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
A New Spin on Scrooge
An actor shows up at the outset of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Is this a budding festive ritual?
This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 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 cultural adaptation is at least distinct from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is wooden—a problem when he’s so the focal point.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
Lunchtime: Stuffed
There's just enough 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 large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a holiday 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.
Enjoyable but forgettable.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
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 raison d’etre—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.
Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to do a deal for a champagne business. On the way, she encounters a fellow 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 exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.
The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄
A Charming Quest
Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts 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 charming, and good viewing while expecting Santa to visit.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄
A Star-Studded Family Drama
Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who gather for the holidays—including other 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 stating: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”
So that’s the concept, but in execution it’s really a jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s taken a dip, but happily here’s a new offering in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.
It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
