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

It is the season to slob out on the couch and consume a box of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a crop of new seasonal stories hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—potentially even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Thus, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the Christmas spirit, I watched as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a positive note. This film is the only 2025 title on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.

The Jonas Brothers find themselves trapped in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to declare they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while devotees will undoubtedly catch lots of references as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

It’s not an all-time classic, but is great for devotees and a good start to the day.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who are obliged to sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

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

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and aging lead Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their retort. That is, unless you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face pops up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Is this a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who collects Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is confronted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least distinct from all the others, but sadly he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a problem when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There’s time for a network's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he gets an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he discovers there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to pay back the difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the setting—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a country estate to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she runs into a fellow in a book store who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

An expert 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 holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the necessary cozy feelings.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, regardless of the attempts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The answer is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the assistance of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s understated but charming, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing classic festive films like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before declaring: “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 combination of those aforementioned movies, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s taken a dip, but thankfully here’s a new addition in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

It’s a narrative as well-worn: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher