Devouring This Year's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to lounge on the couch and demolish a packet of mince pies in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a selection of latest holiday movies strives to join part of our festive viewing—potentially even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I binged as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, ideally, on a good foot. This release is the sole 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stranded in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while followers will no doubt catch lots of references as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity cast a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s performing in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin cast-mates tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their response. Except if you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

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

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable 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. Is this a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects Mr Sood, the newest interpretation on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by a star of Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is confronted by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least distinct from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “isn't big on Christmas.”

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

There’s just one snag—he discovers there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to pay back the excess.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

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

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. During her travels, she runs into a man in a bookshop who vows to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A commentator recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

The answer is to be discovered, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the guidance of a panel of well-known figures.

It’s understated but sweet, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping 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 real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a jumble 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 waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

It’s a story as well-worn: An American woman goes on a quest to a picturesque cold country and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher