Marathon Viewing The Latest Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

‘Tis the season to lounge on the sofa and demolish a box of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a batch of fresh Christmas films hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—potentially even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the holiday mood, I binged as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a good foot. This is the sole 2025 title on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band end up stranded in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The banter between the arguing trio is amusing even for the non-fan, while followers will undoubtedly catch lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is superb 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

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor roped into a "panto".

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. You can guess their reply. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching storylines, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer pops up at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Could this be a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who encounters 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least unique from all the others, but sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s portrayal is wooden—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 charmingly cantankerous character who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he is awarded 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 issue—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. During her travels, she runs into a man in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

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

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The secret is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known figures.

It’s gentle but sweet, and good viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing classic festive films like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “They need to make a movie about the real champions 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.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s taken a dip, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher