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

It is the season to slob out on the sofa and demolish a packet of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a crop of new holiday movies hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—potentially even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the holiday mood, I marathoned as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, 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 wrapping up their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while followers will no doubt notice lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not legendary, but is superb for devotees and a positive start to the day.

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

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

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and aging action hero Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.

His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their reply. Except if you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming storylines, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit naff at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer appears at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 director of Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted by the apparitions 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 captivating and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough time for a network's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an large festive windfall at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) persuades him splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he learns there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to pay back the remainder.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to do a deal for a champagne business. En route, she runs into a guy in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a festive dalliance with a touch of class and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, in spite of the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The truth is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help 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: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling 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 starts by mentioning holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in execution it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—holiday fare.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher