Binge-Watching This Year's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the season to lounge on the sofa and devour a packet of mince pies in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a crop of new Christmas films strives to join part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a noble effort to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the festive feeling, I binged as many recent Christmas films as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, optimistically, on a good foot. This is the only 2025 title on a famous website's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band are trapped in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must get home for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their brotherly magic.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while followers will certainly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not legendary, but is superb for devotees 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.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star tricked into a "panto".

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older star Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. You can guess their retort. Except if you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

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 any other time of year, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor appears at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 the director of Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story unfolds as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is wooden—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

Before lunch for a channel's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a vacation to Lapland.

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the backdrop—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 sent to a country estate to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. During her travels, she runs into a fellow in a literary haven who promises to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

An expert recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

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

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

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 begins by referencing holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before stating: “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 jumble of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new offering in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

It’s a tale as well-worn: 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