Devouring The Latest Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the season to lounge on the sofa and consume a tin of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

This year, a batch of new holiday movies strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a vital public service to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to get into the festive feeling, I binged as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, ideally, on a good foot. This release is the sole 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.

The popular band end up stuck in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an evil Santa, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the uninitiated, while fans will certainly notice lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor tricked into a "panto".

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing star Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His pantomime co-stars inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. One can imagine their retort. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some very funny lines, some heartwarming sub-plots, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face appears at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who encounters 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 familiar story develops as the miserly Mr Sood is visited 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 compelling and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a vacation 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 figure out how to return the remainder.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

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

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she meets a fellow in a literary haven who promises to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

The answer is to be discovered, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s gentle but sweet, and perfect viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional American family who come back together for the holidays—including fellow acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

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

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher