Marathon Viewing This Year's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the time of year to lounge on the sofa and consume a packet of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a poor film, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

As always, a selection of latest seasonal stories strives to join part of our festive viewing—perhaps even finding a spot alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to embrace the Christmas spirit, I marathoned as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, optimistically, on a positive note. This film is the sole 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The popular band find themselves stuck in the UK after finishing their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the uninitiated, while followers will certainly notice lots of easter eggs as they endeavor to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland appears as a celebrity roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in renowned British drama.

His pantomime co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. One can imagine their response. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming storylines, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

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

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 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 tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the spirits 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 regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

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

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she meets a man in a book store who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, in spite of the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The answer is somewhere, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known figures.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother 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 starts by mentioning Christmas classics like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “They need to make a movie about the unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in reality it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a story as old as time: An American woman journeys to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher