Binge-Watching The Latest Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

‘Tis the season to relax on the couch and devour a tin of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.

As always, a batch of fresh holiday movies aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

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

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, ideally, on a good foot. This film is the exclusive 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

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

The repartee between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while followers will no doubt catch lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity cast a pantomime.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime co-stars inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their reply. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some heartwarming storylines, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit cheesy at another season, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor pops up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the next movie straight. Is this a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the latest spin on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by a star of Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited 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 regrettably he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a significant issue when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There's just enough time for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash 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 difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. En route, she encounters a man in a bookshop who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is very good too.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The truth is out there, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the guidance of a group of well-known experts and celebrities.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

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

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

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

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher