Marathon Viewing This Year's Holiday Movies: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

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

This year, a crop of fresh seasonal stories strives to join part of our festive viewing—maybe even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Thus, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the festive feeling, I binged as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Starting, ideally, on a high. This release is the only 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The Jonas Brothers end up stranded in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an evil Santa, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the non-fan, while devotees will certainly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who must sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a movie actor cast a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose manager has misled him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their retort. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching side stories, and the ensemble is excellent, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

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

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 an actor from Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses 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 regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he receives an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—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.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

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 comfortable and seasonal all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a country estate to do a deal for a champagne business. En route, she encounters a man in a literary haven who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

An expert recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

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

It’s gentle but sweet, and good viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who reunite 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 saying: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in execution it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher