Marathon Viewing The Latest Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to lounge on the couch and demolish a tin of festive treats in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a crop of new 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 (we won’t debate it).

Therefore, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the Christmas spirit, I watched as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, optimistically, on a good foot. This release is the only 2025 entry on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band are stuck in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “find their brotherly magic.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while fans will no doubt pick up on lots of references as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity roped into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he protests. You can guess their response. Except if you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the ensemble is excellent, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit tacky at any other time of year, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer shows up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Could this be a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects 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 progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least different from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a family trip to Lapland.

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

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

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she encounters a guy in a bookshop who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The secret is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known figures.

It’s low-key but endearing, and ideal viewing while waiting for 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 acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping 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 true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as well-worn: 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