Marathon Viewing The Latest Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the time of year to relax on the couch and demolish a box of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a selection of fresh holiday movies aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the festive feeling, I binged as many fresh holiday releases as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, optimistically, on a high. This release is the only 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The popular band find themselves stuck in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the non-fan, while fans will undoubtedly pick up on lots of easter eggs as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a Hollywood star roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their response. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer pops up at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects 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 the director of Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough time for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she encounters a man in a bookshop who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A commentator recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a hint of sophistication and gives the required cozy feelings.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The answer is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning 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 unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

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

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher