Marathon Viewing This Year's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

‘Tis the season to slob out on the couch and consume a box of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of fresh holiday movies strives to join part of our festive viewing—maybe even earning a place alongside timeless staples 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 embrace the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, optimistically, on a good foot. This film is the only 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

The musical trio end up stuck in the UK after concluding their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their brotherly magic.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while devotees will undoubtedly catch lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is excellent for fans and a good start to the day.

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity roped into a "panto".

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their reply. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming side stories, and the ensemble is cracking, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit naff at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment 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 crooning chauffeur 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 the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative progresses as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, 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 charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough time for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he discovers there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to reimburse the difference.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

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

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. On the way, she meets a guy in a bookshop who vows to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently claimed 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 hint of sophistication and gives the necessary cozy feelings.

The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The truth is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s gentle but endearing, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping classic festive films 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 practice it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as well-worn: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher