Marathon Viewing This Year's Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the time of year to slob out on the sofa and consume a packet of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

Once again, a selection of new seasonal stories strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a vital public service to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the festive feeling, I marathoned as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, optimistically, on a high. This film is the sole 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The musical trio end up stuck in the UK after concluding their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who bursts into melody to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while devotees will no doubt pick up on lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity roped into a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His pantomime cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. You can guess their response. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some great jokes, some heartwarming storylines, and the ensemble is cracking, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor pops up at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who picks up 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative develops as the stingy Mr Sood is visited by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This cultural adaptation is at least distinct from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a problem when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played 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 devise a plan for how to reimburse the remainder.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the setting 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 vineyard to do a deal for a champagne business. En route, she meets a guy in a literary haven who offers to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the necessary cozy feelings.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Teenage 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 truth.

The truth is out there, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the guidance of a team of well-known figures.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping classic festive films 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 premise, but in practice it’s really a combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last takes center stage.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new offering in the packed genre of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher