Marathon Viewing The Latest Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the time of year to lounge on the sofa and devour a packet of mince pies in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a crop of new holiday movies strives to join part of our festive viewing—potentially even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

So, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the festive feeling, I binged as many fresh Christmas films as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, hopefully, on a high. This release is the exclusive 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

The Jonas Brothers end up stranded in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an evil Santa, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the uninitiated, while fans will no doubt notice lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who will have to sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has tricked him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His pantomime fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their response. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face appears at the outset of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects Mr Sood, the modern take 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 develops as the stingy Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts 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 sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he learns there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the excess.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings 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.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to do a deal for a champagne business. On the way, she meets a guy in a literary haven who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A commentator recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the necessary warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

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

It’s gentle but charming, and perfect viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a bickering 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 opens by name-dropping holiday staples 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 concept, but in execution it’s really a jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s taken a dip, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher