Devouring 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 devour a tin of mince pies in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a crop of latest holiday movies aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even finding a spot 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 get into the festive feeling, I binged as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a good foot. This film is the only 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The musical trio find themselves stranded in the UK after concluding their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while devotees will certainly pick up on lots of in-jokes 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 excellent for fans and a good start to the day.

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor roped into a "panto".

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His pantomime fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. You can guess their retort. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming side stories, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit naff at another season, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

A familiar face pops up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up 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 develops as the miserly Mr Sood is visited by the spirits 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 compelling and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough 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 is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash on a holiday to Lapland.

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

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

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a country estate to do a deal for a champagne business. During her travels, she encounters a guy in a book store who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a festive dalliance with a dash of elegance and gives the necessary cozy feelings.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

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

The secret is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s understated but endearing, and ideal viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping Christmas classics 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 what this is, but in practice it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new entry in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—seasonal comfort food.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher