Devouring This Year's Festive Features: The Hits, The Misses, and The Guilty Pleasures.

It is the season to lounge on the couch and consume a packet of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a poor film, or one that’s awesomely awful.

As always, a selection of latest seasonal stories hopes to be part of our holiday traditions—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 separate the winners from the losers, and to embrace the holiday mood, I watched as many recent Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, optimistically, on a positive note. This is the exclusive 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band find themselves stuck in the UK after finishing their global concert series and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The back-and-forth between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the non-fan, while fans will no doubt catch lots of references as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity tricked into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and aging star Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose representative has deceived him into thinking he’s performing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. One can imagine their reply. Except if you’re not acquainted with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming side stories, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

An actor pops up at the outset of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second film in a row. Is this a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who collects Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 director of Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative unfolds as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the apparitions 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 regrettably he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s acting is wooden—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he gets an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) persuades 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 figure out how to pay back the remainder.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to do a deal for a sparkling wine company. En route, she encounters a man in a literary haven who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.

A commentator recently claimed this is the top new Christmas film of the past few years. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the obligatory warm and fuzzy feels.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is very good too.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

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

The truth is out there, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the assistance of a panel of well-known figures.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

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

Pfeiffer starts by mentioning 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 unsung heroes of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the concept, but in practice it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman travels to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher