Marathon Viewing 2025's Festive Features: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

‘Tis the season to lounge on the couch and devour a tin of festive treats in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

As always, a batch of latest holiday movies strives to join part of our holiday traditions—maybe even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

So, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to get into the Christmas spirit, I binged as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, optimistically, on a high. This film is the exclusive 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 holiday films of all time.

The musical trio are stranded in the UK after concluding their international trek and must get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while followers will no doubt pick up on lots of easter eggs as they endeavor to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is excellent for fans and a positive start to the day.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who must sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland appears as a movie actor cast a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has tricked him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. You can guess their response. Except if you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some very funny lines, some cockle-warming storylines, and the ensemble is excellent, too.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor shows up at the beginning of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the next movie straight. Could this be a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is confronted by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least different from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There’s time for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring 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 determine how to pay back the excess.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to negotiate a purchase for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she meets a fellow in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A commentator recently stated 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 dash of elegance and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is particularly strong too.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

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

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

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the mother 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 starts by mentioning 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 real champions of the holidays—moms.”

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new addition in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher