Devouring The Latest Festive Features: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the time of year to relax on the couch and consume a box of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

This year, a selection of fresh seasonal stories hopes to be part of our festive viewing—maybe even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

So, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the festive feeling, I binged as many recent holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, hopefully, on a good foot. This film is the exclusive 2025 title on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band are trapped in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are hindered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The banter between the arguing trio is amusing even for the uninitiated, while fans will no doubt catch lots of in-jokes as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who are obliged to sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His pantomime fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their response. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some great jokes, some heartwarming storylines, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor shows up at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who collects Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least different from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him spending the sum on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he discovers there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to pay back the difference.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its main point—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to do a deal for a champagne business. During her travels, she meets a man in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

The secret is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

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 Christmas classics 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 what this is, but in practice 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 gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher