Marathon Viewing This Year's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to lounge on the couch and devour a box of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of fresh Christmas films aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the Christmas spirit, I binged as many fresh Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, hopefully, on a good foot. This film is the exclusive 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after finishing their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an evil Santa, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The back-and-forth between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly pick up on lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who will have to sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their reply. Except if you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching sub-plots, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face shows up at the outset of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who picks up Mr Sood, the modern take 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 the director of Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the apparitions 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 portrayal is flat—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he finds out there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to pay back the remainder.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

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

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. During her travels, she encounters a guy in a literary haven who vows to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the required cozy feelings.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

The secret is out there, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known experts and celebrities.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional 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 classic festive films 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 what this is, but in execution it’s really a jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally takes center stage.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a story as old as time: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher