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

It is the season to slob out on the couch and demolish a box of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a crop of new holiday movies strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even earning a place alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

So, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the Christmas spirit, I watched as many fresh holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a high. This is the exclusive 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The musical trio are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the non-fan, while fans will undoubtedly catch lots of references as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor roped into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their retort. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some heartwarming sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer shows up at the outset of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Could this be a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited 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 sadly he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) persuades him splurging the cash on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he discovers there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to reimburse the remainder.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she encounters a guy in a literary haven who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

An expert recently declared this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, 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.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: 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 ventures forth to find it with the expert help of a team of well-known figures.

It’s gentle but charming, and good viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a bickering American family who come back together for the holidays—including other 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 stating: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in practice it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a tale as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher