Marathon Viewing This Year's Holiday Movies: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.
‘Tis the season to lounge on the sofa and demolish a packet of mince pies in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.
As always, a batch of new Christmas films hopes to be part of our festive viewing—maybe even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).
Therefore, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to get into the holiday mood, I marathoned as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.
7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie
Kicking off, optimistically, on a positive note. This release is the exclusive 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.
The popular band end up stuck in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “find their brotherly magic.”
The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the non-fan, while fans will no doubt notice lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.
It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.
It’s not an all-time classic, but is great for fans and a solid start to the day.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who must sit through it.
Late Morning: Tinsel Town
Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor cast a traditional British stage show.
“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.
His Aladdin fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. You can guess their reply. Except if you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.
There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming storylines, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.
It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.
Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
10.19am - Christmas Karma
An actor pops up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?
This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted 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 different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is wooden—a problem when he’s so the main character.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
Noon: A BBC Special
There's just enough time 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 large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.
There’s just one issue—he finds out there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to return the remainder.
Pleasant yet unmemorable.
Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄
Early Afternoon: 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 main point—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.
Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to do a deal for a champagne business. During her travels, she runs into a fellow in a literary haven who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.
A critic recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the required heartwarming sensation.
The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is particularly strong too.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
A Charming Quest
Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, in spite of the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.
The answer is to be discovered, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known figures.
It’s gentle but endearing, and good viewing while expecting Santa to visit.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄
4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a dysfunctional American family who come back together 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 unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”
So that’s the premise, but in reality it’s really a jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.
Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄
6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret
The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.
It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.
In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher
