Binge-Watching This Year's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to lounge on the sofa and consume a packet of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a selection of new Christmas films hopes to be part of our festive viewing—potentially even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a helpful attempt to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I binged as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, optimistically, on a positive note. This film is the exclusive 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band find themselves stuck in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the uninitiated, while devotees will no doubt pick up on lots of references as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who will have to sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star roped into a pantomime.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in renowned British drama.

His pantomime cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. You can guess their reply. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming storylines, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer shows up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second consecutive movie. Is this a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 well-known tale unfolds as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a problem when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough time for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) persuades him blowing the money on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he learns there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to return the difference.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

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

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. En route, she runs into a guy in a bookshop who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A commentator recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary cozy feelings.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, in spite of the persuasion of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The truth is out there, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the assistance of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing Christmas classics 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 concept, but in reality it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the packed genre of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as well-worn: An American woman goes on a quest to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher