Devouring This Year's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

‘Tis the time of year to lounge on the couch and demolish a packet of mince pies in front of a great film, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a batch of latest Christmas films aims to become part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the holiday mood, I watched as many fresh Christmas films as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, hopefully, on a high. This release is the sole 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the best 100 festive features of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stranded in the UK after concluding their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “find their familial spark.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the uninitiated, while fans will undoubtedly notice lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is excellent 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.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a Hollywood star roped into a "panto".

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His pantomime cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their response. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit tacky at any other time of year, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor shows up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who picks up Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 the director of Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least distinct from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is wooden—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

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 large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him blowing the money on a vacation 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 pay back the remainder.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. En route, she runs into a man in a literary haven who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.

A commentator recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

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

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering 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 saying: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but happily here’s a new entry in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a story as well-worn: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher