Binge-Watching The Latest Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

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

As always, a selection of fresh Christmas films hopes to be part of our festive viewing—maybe even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the festive feeling, I marathoned as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, ideally, on a good foot. This release is the only 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

The musical trio end up stuck in the UK after finishing their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an evil Santa, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the casual viewer, while devotees will no doubt catch lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a Hollywood star tricked into a "panto".

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging action hero Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. One can imagine their response. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

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

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit tacky at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer pops up at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the next movie straight. Is this a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 director of Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale develops as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits 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 unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he learns there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to reimburse the difference.

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 setting—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she meets a man in a literary haven who promises to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a dash of elegance and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is very good too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

The truth is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known figures.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch 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 starts by mentioning 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 true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and highly entertaining—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman goes on a quest to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher