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 demolish a packet of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

Once again, a crop of fresh holiday movies strives to join part of our festive viewing—maybe even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to embrace the holiday mood, I binged as many recent Christmas films as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, ideally, on a high. This film is the exclusive 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The Jonas Brothers find themselves stuck in the UK after concluding their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an evil Santa, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the casual viewer, while devotees will no doubt pick up on lots of references as they endeavor 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 superb for fans and a solid 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 has been cast as a Hollywood star tricked into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their retort. Except if you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at another season, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor appears 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 singing black cab driver who encounters 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 the director of Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story unfolds 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 distinct from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

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

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the background—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she encounters a man in a literary haven who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.

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

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, in spite of the persuasion of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The secret is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s low-key but sweet, and ideal viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a bickering American family who gather for the holidays—including other Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

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

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new offering in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher