Binge-Watching This Year's Festive Features: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the season to lounge on the sofa and consume a box of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a crop of new holiday movies aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the festive feeling, I binged as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, ideally, on a high. This release is the sole 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band find themselves stranded in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is amusing even for the non-fan, while fans will no doubt catch lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is great for devotees and a good start to the day.

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

Next: A Star in Panto

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

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. You can guess their retort. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some very funny lines, some touching sub-plots, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit naff at another season, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face shows up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Is this a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who encounters Mr Sood, the modern take 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 classic narrative unfolds as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is confronted by the ghosts 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 sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he gets an large festive windfall at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

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 core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to do a deal for a champagne business. On the way, she meets a fellow in a bookshop who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A commentator recently declared this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is very good too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

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

The answer is somewhere, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known figures.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping classic festive films like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in reality it’s really a jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the packed genre of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman goes on a quest to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher