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

‘Tis the season to lounge on the couch and demolish a packet of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.

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

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

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, hopefully, on a positive note. This film is the only 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an evil Santa, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The repartee between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the casual viewer, while followers will certainly catch lots of easter eggs as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is excellent for devotees 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.

Next: A Star in Panto

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and aging star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His pantomime cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their response. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching sub-plots, and the ensemble is excellent, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face pops up at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Could this be a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 well-known tale progresses as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the spirits of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least different from all the others, but sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so the focal point.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces 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 pay back the difference.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

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

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to do a deal for a champagne business. During her travels, she meets a man in a book store who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

An expert recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a festive dalliance with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, in spite of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The truth is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s understated but charming, and ideal viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping Christmas classics like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the packed genre of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher