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

‘Tis the season to lounge on the sofa and devour a tin of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

This year, a batch of latest holiday movies hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a vital public service to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to get into the festive feeling, I binged as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

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

The musical trio are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the casual viewer, while devotees will certainly notice lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who are obliged to sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and older lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. You can guess their response. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional British theatre traditions.

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

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face appears at the outset of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 the director of Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative unfolds as the miserly 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 different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s portrayal is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a channel's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him spending the sum on a family trip to Lapland.

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

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. On the way, she meets a man in a literary haven who vows to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

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

It’s understated but charming, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a dysfunctional American family who come back together for the holidays—including other Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping holiday staples 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 concept, but in practice it’s really a jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new addition in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher