Devouring 2025's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to lounge on the sofa and consume a packet of festive treats in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

This year, a batch of latest seasonal stories hopes to be part of our festive viewing—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I binged as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, optimistically, on a positive note. This release is the only 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The musical trio end up trapped in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The back-and-forth between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the non-fan, while followers will undoubtedly notice lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not legendary, but is excellent for fans and a positive start to the day.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who are obliged to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a Hollywood star tricked into a "panto".

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and aging action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their reply. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming storylines, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor appears at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up Mr Sood, the latest spin on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by a star of Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the director of Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least unique 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.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There’s time for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he finds out there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the excess.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those Christmas films 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 warm and holiday-like all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. On the way, she runs into a man in a literary haven who promises to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

An expert recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is very good too.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The truth is to be discovered, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the guidance of a group of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s gentle but charming, and good viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who gather for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in execution it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

It’s a story as old as time: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher