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

It is the season to relax on the sofa and demolish a box of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a crop of fresh Christmas films aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a helpful attempt to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the holiday mood, I marathoned as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

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

The Jonas Brothers are stranded in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The banter between the arguing trio is amusing even for the casual viewer, while followers will no doubt pick up on lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who will have to sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity cast a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and aging star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His pantomime co-stars inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. You can guess their response. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some very funny lines, some touching sub-plots, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor pops up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least unique from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a problem when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “isn't big on Christmas.”

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

There’s just one issue—he learns there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the excess.

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 scene of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she encounters a guy in a book store who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a touch of class and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The secret is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s understated but endearing, and good viewing while anticipating 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 Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping Christmas classics 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 practice it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and highly entertaining—seasonal comfort food.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher