Devouring This Year's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the time of year to slob out on the couch and demolish a tin of mince pies in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

Once again, a selection of fresh Christmas films strives to join 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).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the holiday mood, I watched as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, ideally, on a positive note. This is the sole 2025 title on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.

The musical trio are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an evil Santa, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while followers will undoubtedly catch lots of references as they try to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is superb for devotees and a positive start to the day.

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor cast a traditional British stage show.

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

His Aladdin co-stars inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their response. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some great jokes, some touching sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

A familiar face appears at the start of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Is this a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up Mr Sood, the modern take 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted 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 different from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a significant issue when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

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

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) persuades him splurging the cash on a holiday to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to do a deal for a champagne business. On the way, she meets a guy in a literary haven who vows to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the required cozy feelings.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is notable too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

The secret is to be discovered, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a panel of well-known figures.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes 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 at last comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but happily here’s a new entry in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman journeys to a picturesque cold country and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher