Binge-Watching This Year's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the season to slob out on the sofa and consume a tin of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

Once again, a crop of latest seasonal stories hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the festive feeling, I marathoned as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, optimistically, on a high. This is the sole 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after finishing their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the non-fan, while followers will no doubt catch lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is superb for fans and a positive start to the day.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who must sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity roped into a "panto".

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His pantomime fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. You can guess their reply. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some hilarious moments, some heartwarming storylines, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at another season, 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 fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who encounters Mr Sood, the modern take 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 the director of Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least distinct from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s time for a channel's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to pay back the difference.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. En route, she meets a man in a book store who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently claimed 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 lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

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

It’s understated but charming, and good viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a dysfunctional American family who come back together 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 unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in reality it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher