Devouring This Year's Holiday Movies: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

‘Tis the season to relax on the couch and demolish a tin of mince pies in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a batch of new holiday movies strives to join part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a vital public service to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to embrace the holiday mood, I watched as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a good foot. This film is the sole 2025 title on a famous website's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The musical trio end up trapped in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while followers will certainly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their retort. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

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

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face shows up at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters 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 classic narrative unfolds as the stingy Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts 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 charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a network's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into 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 figure out how to return the difference.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the background—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to do a deal for a champagne business. During her travels, she meets a man in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a dash of elegance and gives the necessary cozy feelings.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The truth is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional American family who reunite for the holidays—including other 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 stating: “They need to make a movie about the true 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 finally comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new entry in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as well-worn: An American woman goes on a quest to a far-off wintery locale and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher