Marathon Viewing 2025's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the time of year to slob out on the sofa and demolish a box of mince pies in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a selection of latest seasonal stories strives to join part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even joining the ranks alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

So, in a vital public service to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to find the holiday mood, I binged as many new holiday releases as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, optimistically, on a good foot. This is the only 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers find themselves stuck in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an malevolent Father Christmas, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The back-and-forth between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly notice lots of in-jokes as they endeavor to get back using all transportation available.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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 relatives who are obliged to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity tricked into a "panto".

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin fellow actors inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. You can guess their reply. Unless you’re ignorant of traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming storylines, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit cheesy at another season, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

A familiar face pops up at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Might this become a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who collects Mr Sood, the modern take 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 filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative progresses as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted 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 sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s performance is lifeless—a major flaw when he’s so the focal point.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

Before lunch for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he receives an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades him splurging the cash on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he learns there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to pay back the remainder.

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 background—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its core purpose—but it feels warm and holiday-like 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 bookshop who promises to show her a festive Paris.

An expert recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the required cozy feelings.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

The truth is to be discovered, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the expert help of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s low-key but sweet, and perfect viewing while waiting for Santa to visit.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer begins by referencing holiday staples 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 what this is, but in reality it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new entry in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher