Binge-Watching The Latest Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to relax on the sofa and devour a box of holiday pastries in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

Once again, a selection of latest seasonal stories hopes to be part of our festive viewing—potentially even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the Christmas spirit, I watched as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, hopefully, on a high. This is the only 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.

The musical trio find themselves trapped in the UK after concluding their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will no doubt notice lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not legendary, but is superb for fans 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.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor cast a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their response. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some very funny lines, some touching side stories, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

A familiar face shows up at the beginning 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 crooning chauffeur who encounters 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 the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a problem when he’s so central to everything.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a family trip to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to do a deal for a champagne business. On the way, she runs into a man in a bookshop who promises to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

The answer is out there, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the guidance of a panel of well-known figures.

It’s low-key but charming, and ideal viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling American family who reunite for the holidays—including fellow acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning 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 true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in practice it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—seasonal comfort food.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher