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

It is the time of year to relax on the sofa and devour a packet of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

Once again, a batch of new holiday movies strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

So, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the holiday mood, I marathoned as many fresh holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, hopefully, on a positive note. This film is the sole 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

The Jonas Brothers find themselves trapped in the UK after concluding their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while fans will undoubtedly notice lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is superb for fans and a good start to the day.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who must sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity tricked into a "panto".

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

His pantomime co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. One can imagine their response. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

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

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit tacky at another season, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face appears at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Could this be a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters 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 develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least distinct from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s time for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “isn't big on Christmas.”

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

There’s just one problem—he discovers there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out 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 festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she encounters a man in a bookshop who vows to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A commentator recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

The answer is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who come back together for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee 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 declaring: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally takes center stage.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and highly entertaining—festive fodder.

It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher