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

It is the season to relax on the sofa and demolish a packet of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a batch of latest holiday movies hopes to be part of our festive viewing—perhaps even earning a place alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

So, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the festive feeling, I marathoned as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, hopefully, on a positive note. This release is the only 2025 movie on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The popular band are stranded in the UK after concluding their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their attempts are hindered by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The banter between the bickering brothers is enjoyable even for the non-fan, while devotees will undoubtedly pick up on lots of references as they try to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not legendary, but is superb for devotees and a good start to the day.

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor cast a pantomime.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “difficult” and aging star Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their reply. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some hilarious moments, some heartwarming sub-plots, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

An actor appears at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Could this be a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters 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 well-known tale progresses as the stingy Mr Sood is confronted by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This Indian Scrooge is at least unique from all the others, but sadly he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a problem when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s 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 receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) talks him into spending the sum on a holiday to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—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 return the difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

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 raison d’etre—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she meets 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 touch of class and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, in spite of the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The truth is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a team of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s gentle but endearing, 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 starts by mentioning Christmas classics 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 execution it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally takes center stage.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but thankfully here’s a new offering in the crowded field of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a story as familiar as can be: An American woman travels to a picturesque cold country and ends up finding romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher