Marathon Viewing This Year's Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the time of year to relax on the couch and devour a tin of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a selection of latest Christmas films strives to join part of our festive viewing—potentially even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a noble effort to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the festive feeling, I binged as many recent Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, optimistically, on a good foot. This is the sole 2025 title on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers find themselves trapped in the UK after concluding their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are hindered by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The banter between the arguing trio is amusing even for the casual viewer, while fans will no doubt catch lots of references as they endeavor to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not legendary, but is great for fans and a good start to the day.

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity roped into a "panto".

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and aging lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their response. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming storylines, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.

It’s the sort of feature that would be a bit naff at another season, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer appears at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up Mr Sood, the modern take 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is visited by the apparitions of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least distinct from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a network's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

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

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the scene 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 assigned to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. During her travels, she meets a man in a bookshop who vows to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently stated this is the best new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a lengthy discussion 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, regardless of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The answer is to be discovered, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known figures.

It’s gentle but charming, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional American family who come back together for the holidays—including fellow 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 stating: “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 mash-up of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new entry in the packed genre of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher