Marathon Viewing This Year's Festive Features: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

‘Tis the time of year to slob out on the sofa and devour a tin of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

Once again, a crop of new holiday movies aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Thus, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the holiday mood, I watched as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, ideally, on a good foot. This release is the exclusive 2025 entry on a popular review site's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The musical trio end up stuck in the UK after concluding their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The repartee between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the non-fan, while followers will no doubt catch lots of references as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is great for devotees and a solid start to the day.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who must sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity roped into a pantomime.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. One can imagine their response. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

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 another season, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor appears at the outset of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative progresses 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 South Asian reinterpretation is at least unique from all the others, but sadly he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a problem when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time 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 sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the setting—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. During her travels, she meets a man in a literary haven who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

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

It’s gentle but sweet, and ideal viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing classic festive films 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 execution it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new offering in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher