Marathon Viewing This Year's Christmas Films: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the season to slob out on the sofa and devour a tin of festive treats in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a crop of new seasonal stories hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—potentially even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a noble effort to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the festive feeling, I binged as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Starting, ideally, on a good foot. This film is the sole 2025 title on a famous website'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 make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The back-and-forth between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the casual viewer, while followers will undoubtedly notice lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor tricked into a "panto".

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older star Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their reply. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some great jokes, some touching storylines, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor shows up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the next movie straight. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who collects Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts 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 regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

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

There’s just one issue—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to pay back the excess.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

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

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she meets a man in a literary haven who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

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

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a quarrelling American family who gather for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress 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 saying: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a story as old as time: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher