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

It is the season to relax on the sofa and devour a box of mince pies in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

As always, a crop of fresh seasonal stories hopes to be part of our festive viewing—perhaps even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the holiday mood, I watched as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, optimistically, on a positive note. This is the sole 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The musical trio are stranded in the UK after wrapping up their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The banter between the arguing trio is amusing even for the casual viewer, while devotees will no doubt pick up on lots of easter eggs as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is excellent for fans and a positive start to the day.

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

Next: A Star in Panto

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

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and older star Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s starring in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin cast-mates tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he protests. One can imagine their reply. Unless you’re not acquainted with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching side stories, and the rest of the cast is excellent, too.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

A familiar face appears at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the next movie straight. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who collects Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 the director of Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the miserly Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, 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 captivating and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s time for a channel's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an large festive windfall at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) persuades him blowing the money on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he finds out there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to return 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 festive trappings are in the backdrop—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a country estate to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she meets a guy in a bookshop who promises to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a hint of sophistication and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

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

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

It’s gentle but sweet, and ideal viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping Christmas classics 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 practice it’s really a jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the packed genre of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher