Binge-Watching The Latest Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

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

This year, a crop of fresh Christmas films aims to become part of our holiday traditions—potentially even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a vital public service to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to embrace the festive feeling, I watched as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, ideally, on a positive note. This film is the sole 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band find themselves trapped in the UK after finishing their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is amusing even for the non-fan, while devotees will no doubt catch lots of references as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is great for fans and a solid start to the day.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who will have to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star roped into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their reply. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some touching side stories, and the ensemble is cracking, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit tacky at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face shows up at the start of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Could this be a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who collects 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 the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story unfolds as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted 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 charismatic and Nayyar’s portrayal is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s time for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the background—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she meets a fellow in a bookshop who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A commentator 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 holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, despite the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The secret is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s low-key but sweet, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing Christmas classics 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 concept, but in execution 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 thankfully here’s a new entry in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—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