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

‘Tis the season to relax on the sofa and demolish a tin of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

Once again, a crop of new Christmas films aims to become part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Therefore, in a vital public service to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the holiday mood, I watched as many fresh Christmas films as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, hopefully, on a good foot. This is the only 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 festive features of all time.

The popular band find themselves stranded in the UK after finishing their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an malevolent Father Christmas, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their brotherly magic.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while followers will undoubtedly catch lots of references as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who will have to sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a Hollywood star cast a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and older star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. One can imagine their retort. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face shows up at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second consecutive movie. Could this be a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 familiar story develops as the miserly Mr Sood is visited by the spirits of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a significant issue when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a endearingly grumpy man who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a holiday 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 determine how to reimburse the excess.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the setting—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 negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she runs into a man in a bookshop who promises to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently declared this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the necessary warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, despite the efforts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The answer is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known figures.

It’s understated but charming, and ideal viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling American family who gather 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 saying: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in practice it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

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

It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher