Binge-Watching This Year's Holiday Movies: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the season to lounge on the sofa and demolish a box of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

Once again, a crop of fresh holiday movies hopes to be part of our festive viewing—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Therefore, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the festive feeling, I marathoned as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, optimistically, on a high. This is the sole 2025 movie on a popular review site'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 get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while devotees will no doubt pick up on lots of references as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity roped into a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older star Brad Mack, who has seen better days 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. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. One can imagine their reply. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

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

It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at any other time of year, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer pops up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 director of Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative unfolds as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least different from all the others, but sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There’s 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 gets an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him spending the sum on a vacation to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment 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 dispatched to a French chateau to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she encounters a fellow in a bookshop who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A commentator recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The secret is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s low-key but endearing, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling 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 stating: “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 jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—seasonal comfort food.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher