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

‘Tis the time of year to relax on the couch and devour a packet of mince pies in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a selection of fresh seasonal stories hopes to be part of our festive viewing—potentially even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the Christmas spirit, I binged as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, optimistically, on a good foot. This film is the sole 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band are stranded in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an evil Santa, who sings to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly catch lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

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.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity 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 hit a rough patch and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His pantomime co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their retort. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some very funny lines, some touching sub-plots, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer shows up at the beginning of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up Mr Sood, the newest interpretation on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by an actor from Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least distinct from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout 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 mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to pay back the remainder.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. On the way, she encounters a fellow in a book store who vows to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently declared this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, despite the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The answer is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a panel of well-known figures.

It’s gentle but sweet, and ideal viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother 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 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 what this is, but in reality it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new addition in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher