Binge-Watching This Year's Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to relax on the sofa and devour a packet of festive treats in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a crop of latest Christmas films hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many fresh Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, ideally, on a good foot. This film is the only 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stranded in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is amusing even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly notice lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is superb for devotees and a good start to the day.

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor cast a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. One can imagine their reply. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit tacky at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor appears at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters 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 stingy Mr Sood is confronted 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 different from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a channel's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he discovers there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to reimburse the remainder.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the background—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to do a deal for a champagne business. During her travels, she encounters a fellow in a bookshop who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a extended debate about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The secret is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing 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 the concept, but in execution it’s really a jumble of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher