Devouring This Year's Festive Features: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the season to lounge on the sofa and devour a tin of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a crop of new holiday movies hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, optimistically, on a positive note. This release is the sole 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the casual viewer, while followers will certainly catch lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who must sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity tricked into a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin cast-mates tell him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their response. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching storylines, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor appears at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver 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 the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses as the miserly 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 acting is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

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

There’s just one issue—he finds out there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to return the difference.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to do a deal for a champagne business. During her travels, she runs into a guy in a literary haven who vows to show her a festive Paris.

An expert recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the necessary cozy feelings.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

The secret is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the expert help of a team of well-known experts and celebrities.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a bickering American family who come back together for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress 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 declaring: “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 jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher