Devouring This Year's Christmas Films: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the time of year to relax on the couch and consume a tin of mince pies in front of a good movie, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

Once again, a batch of latest holiday movies strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—potentially even finding a spot alongside timeless staples like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

Therefore, in a noble effort to sort the crackers from the turkeys, and to get into the festive feeling, I marathoned as many recent Christmas films as possible in a single day.

Early Morning: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Kicking off, hopefully, on a high. This release is the sole 2025 entry on a well-known aggregator's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers find themselves stuck in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must make it back for Christmas. Their efforts are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to announce they won’t get home until they “rekindle their sibling bond.”

The back-and-forth between the squabbling siblings is entertaining even for the non-fan, while followers will no doubt catch lots of references as they try to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not an all-time classic, 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.

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star roped into a pantomime.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s performing in renowned British drama.

His Aladdin fellow actors let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Absolutely not,” he protests. It's easy to predict their retort. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional British theatre traditions.

There are some hilarious moments, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit cheesy at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer appears at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the second film in a row. Is this a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up 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 classic narrative unfolds 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 Indian Scrooge is at least distinct from all the others, but regrettably he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a problem when he’s so central to everything.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There’s time for a network's holiday special—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 (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash on a family trip to Lapland.

There’s just one problem—he discovers there was an mistake with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to devise a plan for how to reimburse the remainder.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Early Afternoon: Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the setting—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. On the way, she runs into a guy in a book store who vows to show her a festive Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it is a holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

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

The answer is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the guidance of a panel of well-known experts and celebrities.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

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

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping 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 real champions 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 eventually comes into her own.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Evening: A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s gone downhill, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—festive fodder.

It’s a tale as old as time: An American woman travels to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher