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

It is the season to relax on the sofa and consume a box of festive treats in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

This year, a selection of fresh Christmas films aims to become part of our holiday traditions—maybe even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Therefore, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the holiday mood, I watched as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a good foot. This is the sole 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The musical trio end up stranded in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an evil Santa, who sings to announce they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while devotees will undoubtedly notice lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

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

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. You can guess their response. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming storylines, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor pops up at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator 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 well-known tale develops as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted by the ghosts 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 unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s time for a channel's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

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

There’s just one snag—he learns there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the excess.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

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

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. En route, she encounters a man in a literary haven who promises to show her a festive Paris.

An expert recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The truth is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s gentle but sweet, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a bickering American family who reunite for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee 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 saying: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally takes center stage.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a far-off wintery locale and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher