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

It is the time of year to slob out on the sofa and consume a box of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a selection of new Christmas films hopes to be part of our festive viewing—potentially even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Therefore, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, hopefully, on a positive note. This release is the only 2025 title on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band are stranded in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the casual viewer, while fans will certainly notice lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

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

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and aging lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their reply. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming side stories, and the ensemble is cracking, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face appears at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Could this be a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 Indian Scrooge is at least distinct from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he receives an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to reimburse the remainder.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the background—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. En route, she encounters a man in a literary haven who promises to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

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

The truth is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known figures.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

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

So that’s the premise, but in reality it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman journeys to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher