Marathon Viewing The Latest Holiday Movies: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the time of year to lounge on the couch and demolish a box of festive treats in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a selection of fresh holiday movies hopes to be part of our festive viewing—maybe even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

So, in a noble effort to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to get into the holiday mood, I watched as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, ideally, on a high. This is the sole 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

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

The repartee between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the casual viewer, while devotees will certainly 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 devotees and a good start to the day.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who are obliged to sit through it.

8.45am - Tinsel Town

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

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and older star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has tricked him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin fellow actors tell him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their response. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional British theatre traditions.

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

It’s the type of film that would be a bit naff at a different time, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer shows up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator 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 the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The well-known tale unfolds as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits 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 unfortunately he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—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 (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a vacation 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 devise a plan for how to reimburse the difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its main point—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. On the way, she runs into a guy in a literary haven who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

The scene with a detailed conversation about Die Hard is notable too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, in spite of the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

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

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a dysfunctional American family who gather for the holidays—including fellow acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer begins by referencing Christmas classics 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 execution it’s really a jumble of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but happily here’s a new offering in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—festive fodder.

It’s a tale as well-worn: An American woman goes on a quest to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher