Binge-Watching 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 packet of mince pies in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

This year, a selection of new seasonal stories aims to become part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, optimistically, on a positive note. This film is the only 2025 title on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after concluding their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while followers will undoubtedly pick up on lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor roped into a "panto".

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His pantomime fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their response. Except if you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some heartwarming side stories, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor shows up at the outset of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Is this a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who collects Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least distinct from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s time for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he finds out there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to pay back the remainder.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

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

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to do a deal for a champagne business. En route, she runs into a man in a literary haven who promises to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is notable too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, in spite of the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The answer is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known figures.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a dysfunctional American family who reunite for the holidays—including other acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning 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 true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in practice it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher