Binge-Watching This Year's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the season to relax on the sofa and consume a tin of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

This year, a selection of fresh holiday movies aims to become part of our festive viewing—potentially even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I watched as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, hopefully, on a positive note. This is the only 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band are stranded in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The banter between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while fans will certainly pick up on lots of references as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is great for fans and a solid start to the day.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who must sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity roped into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and aging lead Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. You can guess their response. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming storylines, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor pops up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the next movie straight. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least distinct from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There’s time for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he gets an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he discovers there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to return the excess.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films 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.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a country estate to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she meets a fellow in a book store who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently declared this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, in spite of the persuasion of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The truth is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s understated but charming, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling 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 begins by referencing classic festive films 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 the concept, but in practice it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

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

It’s a story as well-worn: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher