Devouring 2025's Festive Features: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

‘Tis the season to lounge on the couch and consume a box of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a batch of fresh seasonal stories aims to become part of our festive viewing—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many recent Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, optimistically, on a positive note. This release is the exclusive 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band end up stranded in the UK after concluding their world tour and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the uninitiated, while followers will no doubt notice lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not legendary, but is superb for devotees and a good 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

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their reply. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming side stories, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

A familiar face appears at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale progresses as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he discovers there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to reimburse the excess.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the setting 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 assigned to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. On the way, she meets a guy in a bookshop who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A commentator recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the necessary warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is notable 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 efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The answer is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known figures.

It’s understated but endearing, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling 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 declaring: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in practice it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new offering in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher