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

‘Tis the season to relax on the couch and consume a packet of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a selection of fresh seasonal stories aims to become part of our festive viewing—potentially even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the festive feeling, I binged as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, optimistically, on a positive note. This is the only 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band end up stuck in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the non-fan, while followers will undoubtedly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity roped into a "panto".

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older lead Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their response. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming side stories, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer shows up at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the next movie straight. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who encounters Mr Sood, the latest spin on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by an actor from Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least different from all the others, but sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s portrayal is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a network's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) persuades him spending the sum on a vacation 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 determine how to return the remainder.

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 setting of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. On the way, she meets a man in a book store who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.

A commentator recently declared this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

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

The answer is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known figures.

It’s understated but sweet, and good viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a dysfunctional American family who reunite for the holidays—including other 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 stating: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in reality it’s really a jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

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

It’s a tale as well-worn: 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