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

‘Tis the season to relax on the sofa and demolish a box of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a crop of new seasonal stories strives to join part of our holiday traditions—maybe even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the holiday mood, I binged as many recent Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, ideally, on a high. This release is the only 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The musical trio end up trapped in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “find their brotherly magic.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the non-fan, while fans will undoubtedly pick up on lots of references as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a Hollywood star cast a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His pantomime fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their reply. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some great jokes, some touching sub-plots, and the ensemble is cracking, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer appears at the start of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the next movie straight. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative develops as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a problem when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There’s time for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he learns there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the excess.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

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

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she meets a fellow in a bookshop who promises to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

The answer is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s low-key but charming, and perfect viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing classic festive films like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “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 inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

It’s a story as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher