Marathon Viewing This Year's Christmas Films: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the time of year to lounge on the couch and devour a box of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

Once again, a batch of latest holiday movies strives to join part of our holiday traditions—maybe even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the festive feeling, I binged as many fresh Christmas films 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 title on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.

The musical trio are stranded in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are hindered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The back-and-forth between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly pick up on lots of in-jokes 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 great for fans and a good start to the day.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who will have to sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity cast a "panto".

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older star Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their reply. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some very funny lines, some touching storylines, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face pops up at the start of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the modern take 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 director of Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale progresses as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted 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 unique from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—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 pay back the difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the setting—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she runs into a guy in a book store who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A commentator recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the persuasion of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The truth is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s gentle but sweet, and good viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a bickering 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 begins by referencing classic festive films 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 mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new offering in the saturated market of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

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