Binge-Watching The Latest Festive Features: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

‘Tis the season to lounge on the sofa and consume a packet of festive treats in front of a good movie, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

As always, a batch of latest seasonal stories strives to join part of our holiday traditions—maybe even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

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

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, hopefully, on a positive note. This release is the exclusive 2025 title on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band are trapped in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “find their brotherly magic.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while followers will certainly notice lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is superb for devotees and a good start to the day.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who will have to sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor tricked into a pantomime.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His pantomime fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their response. Except if you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some very funny lines, some touching sub-plots, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at another season, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor shows up at the outset of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Might this become a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who encounters Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 classic narrative develops as the miserly Mr Sood is haunted by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least unique from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

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

But after he receives an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he finds out there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to reimburse the excess.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she encounters a man in a bookshop who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary cozy feelings.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, in spite of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The secret is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother of a dysfunctional American family who gather for the holidays—including other Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning 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 premise, but in execution it’s really a mash-up of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new addition in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as well-worn: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up discovering romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher