Binge-Watching The Latest Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.
‘Tis the season to slob out on the couch and consume a tin of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.
As always, a crop of new holiday movies aims to become part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).
Thus, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the Christmas spirit, I watched as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.
7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Beginning, optimistically, on a good foot. This is the exclusive 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.
The popular band are stuck in the UK after finishing their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to announce they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”
The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly pick up on lots of references as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.
It’s a journey of epic proportions.
It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is great for devotees and a positive start to the day.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who are obliged to sit through it.
Late Morning: Tinsel Town
Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity roped into a traditional British stage show.
“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and older lead Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s performing in renowned British drama.
His pantomime co-stars inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. One can imagine their retort. Except if you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.
There are some hilarious moments, some touching side stories, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.
It’s the type of film that would be a bit tacky at any other time of year, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
10.19am - Christmas Karma
An actor appears at the start 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 picks up Mr Sood, the modern take 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 familiar story progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions 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 regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.
Festive score: 🎄🎄
12.04pm - Stuffed
There’s time for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”
But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.
There’s just one snag—he finds out there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to reimburse the difference.
Pleasant yet unmemorable.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems
This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the background—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.
Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she runs into a guy in a bookshop who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.
A critic recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.
The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is very good too.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas
Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, in spite of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.
The answer is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a group of well-known figures.
It’s low-key but charming, and ideal viewing while expecting Santa to visit.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄
Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who gather for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.
Pfeiffer begins by referencing Christmas classics 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 jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—seasonal comfort food.
It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
