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

It is the season to lounge on the sofa and demolish a tin of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

This year, a selection of new seasonal stories aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Therefore, in a noble effort to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the festive feeling, I watched as many fresh holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, ideally, on a good foot. This film is the only 2025 entry on a popular review site's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band end up stranded in the UK after finishing their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the casual viewer, while followers will undoubtedly catch lots of references as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a Hollywood star roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His pantomime fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their retort. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

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

It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor pops up at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the next movie straight. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who picks up 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 classic narrative progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a problem when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s time for a network's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.

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

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a country estate to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. En route, she meets a fellow in a literary haven who promises to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently declared this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Teenage 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 otherwise.

The truth is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s understated but charming, and perfect viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother 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 starts by mentioning 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 unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in practice it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new offering in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher