Devouring The Latest Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the time of year to slob out on the couch and demolish a box of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of fresh holiday movies strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

So, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the Christmas spirit, I binged as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Starting, ideally, on a good foot. This is the only 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are trapped in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are hindered by an evil Santa, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while devotees will certainly notice lots of easter eggs as they endeavor to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a Hollywood star cast a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His pantomime co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. One can imagine their response. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some hilarious moments, some heartwarming sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit tacky at another season, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer pops up at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Is this a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the modern take 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the stingy Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least unique from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is lifeless—a problem when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

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

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) persuades him splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

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 scene of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. On the way, she runs into a guy in a bookshop who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert recently declared this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the required cozy feelings.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The secret is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional American family who reunite for the holidays—including other Oscar nominee 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 stating: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a far-off wintery locale and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher