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

‘Tis the season to slob out on the couch and demolish a box of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a crop of fresh Christmas films hopes to be part of our festive viewing—maybe even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the Christmas spirit, I watched as many fresh holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a high. This is the only 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers end up stranded in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings 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 non-fan, while devotees will certainly notice lots of references as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is great for fans and a positive start to the day.

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor tricked into a "panto".

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their response. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some very funny lines, some touching storylines, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor appears at the outset of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects 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 the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative develops as the miserly Mr Sood is visited by the spirits 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 charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) persuades him splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he discovers there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the remainder.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. En route, she meets a man in a bookshop who promises to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently declared this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

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, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The secret is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known figures.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping classic festive films 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 premise, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

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 story as old as time: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher