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

‘Tis the season to relax on the couch and devour a tin of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a batch of latest Christmas films aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even earning a place alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

So, in a noble effort to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to embrace the festive feeling, I marathoned as many fresh festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, ideally, on a good foot. This film is the sole 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after finishing their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The back-and-forth between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the uninitiated, while followers will undoubtedly pick up on lots of easter eggs as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is superb for fans and a solid start to the day.

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

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity cast a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has tricked him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their response. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching side stories, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor shows up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Might this become 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, 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 charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

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

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a family trip to Lapland.

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

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

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. During her travels, she meets a fellow in a bookshop who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert recently stated this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the obligatory heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

The secret is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a group of well-known experts and celebrities.

It’s low-key but endearing, and ideal viewing while expecting Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional American family who gather 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 saying: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new addition in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

It’s a story as well-worn: An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher