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

It is the season to relax on the sofa and devour a box of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a selection of fresh seasonal stories aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, hopefully, on a good foot. This is the exclusive 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.

The popular band are trapped in the UK after concluding their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

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

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who must sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a Hollywood star tricked into a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His pantomime fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. One can imagine their reply. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some touching side stories, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

A familiar face pops up at the start of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Could this be a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters Mr Sood, the modern take 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 the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale develops as the miserly Mr Sood is visited by the apparitions 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 captivating and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he learns there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to reimburse the excess.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is assigned to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. During her travels, she meets a fellow in a literary haven who promises to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently declared this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a festive dalliance with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The answer is out there, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known figures.

It’s understated but endearing, and perfect viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a dysfunctional American family who come back together for the holidays—including fellow acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer begins by referencing 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 real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in practice it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new entry in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and highly entertaining—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 finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher