Binge-Watching This Year's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the season to lounge on the couch and consume a packet of festive treats in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a crop of new Christmas films hopes to be part of our festive viewing—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the festive feeling, I watched as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, ideally, on a high. This is the sole 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band are stranded in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”

The back-and-forth between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the uninitiated, while followers will undoubtedly pick up on lots of references as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a Hollywood star tricked into a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime cast-mates tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their retort. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some touching sub-plots, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit cheesy at another season, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor appears at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Could this be a new Christmas tradition?

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 a star of Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the director of Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale develops as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts 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 lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

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

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a holiday 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.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she meets a fellow in a book store who promises to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a touch of class and gives the required cozy feelings.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, in spite of the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

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

It’s understated but endearing, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a dysfunctional American family who gather for the holidays—including other Oscar nominee 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 saying: “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 combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but happily here’s a new addition in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher