Devouring This Year's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

‘Tis the season to lounge on the sofa and demolish a tin of mince pies in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of latest holiday movies strives to join part of our holiday traditions—potentially even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

So, in a vital public service to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to embrace the holiday mood, I watched as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

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

The popular band find themselves trapped in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The back-and-forth between the arguing trio is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while devotees will certainly notice lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor cast a "panto".

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin co-stars inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their response. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

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

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

A familiar face pops up at the beginning of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the next movie straight. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who collects Mr Sood, the newest interpretation on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by an actor from Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least unique from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so the focal point.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There’s time for a network's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.

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

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those Christmas films 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 comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she encounters a man in a book store who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, in spite of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The answer is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the guidance of a group of well-known figures.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a dysfunctional American family who come back together for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress 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 unsung heroes 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 at last takes center stage.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as well-worn: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher