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

It is the time of year to lounge on the sofa and demolish a packet of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

This year, a selection of latest Christmas films strives to join part of our holiday traditions—maybe even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Therefore, in a helpful attempt to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the festive feeling, I binged as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

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

The musical trio are stuck in the UK after concluding their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to announce they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The back-and-forth between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly notice lots of references as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

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.

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor roped into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their reply. Except if you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

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

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor shows up at the outset of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the next movie straight. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who collects Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 familiar story unfolds as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least distinct from all the others, but sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch 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 large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him splurging the cash on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he discovers there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to pay back the excess.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she meets a fellow in a book store who vows to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, 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.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

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

It’s understated but sweet, and ideal viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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 begins by referencing holiday staples 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 what this is, but in reality it’s really a jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher