Marathon Viewing The Latest Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the season to lounge on the couch and demolish a packet of mince pies in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

This year, a batch of new holiday movies hopes to be part of our festive viewing—potentially even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the Christmas spirit, I watched as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, optimistically, on a high. This is the exclusive 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after concluding their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an evil Santa, who bursts into melody to declare they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The banter between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the uninitiated, while fans will undoubtedly notice lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is superb for devotees and a positive start to the day.

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star tricked into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their reply. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some great jokes, some heartwarming storylines, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit tacky at a different time, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor shows up at the beginning of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second consecutive movie. Is this a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up Mr Sood, the modern take on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story unfolds as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a network's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he discovers there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to reimburse the excess.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films 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.

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a country estate to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. En route, she encounters a guy in a literary haven who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.

A commentator recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the required cozy feelings.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The answer is out there, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s low-key but charming, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning classic festive films like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before stating: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as well-worn: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher