Binge-Watching This Year's Festive Features: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

‘Tis the time of year to slob out on the couch and consume a packet of festive treats in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

Once again, a crop of new holiday movies aims to become part of our festive viewing—maybe even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Therefore, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the holiday mood, I marathoned as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, hopefully, on a positive note. This release is the sole 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.

The popular band find themselves trapped in the UK after concluding their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an evil Santa, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their brotherly magic.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the casual viewer, while fans will no doubt notice lots of references as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their reply. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

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

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face shows up at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Is this a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects 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 classic narrative progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is visited by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he finds out there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to return the difference.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

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

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. During her travels, she runs into a fellow in a book store who vows to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A commentator 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 obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

The truth is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s low-key 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 quarrelling American family who reunite for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning Christmas classics like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in execution it’s really a jumble of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the packed genre of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and highly entertaining—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a story as well-worn: An American woman journeys to a far-off wintery locale and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher