Binge-Watching This Year's Holiday Movies: The Good, The Bad and The So-Bad-It's-Good.

It is the time of year to lounge on the couch and devour a box of holiday pastries in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s awesomely awful.

Once again, a selection of latest Christmas films aims to become part of our festive viewing—potentially even finding a spot alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Thus, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the Christmas spirit, I binged as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Kicking off, optimistically, on a good foot. This release is the only 2025 entry on a popular review site's list of the best 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band are stuck in the UK after concluding their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who breaks into song to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is entertaining even for the casual viewer, while followers will undoubtedly notice lots of in-jokes as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a travelogue of mishaps.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their loved ones who must sit through it.

Next: A Star in Panto

Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland stars as a celebrity tricked into a traditional British stage show.

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

His pantomime cast-mates let him know he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their response. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming sub-plots, and the supporting actors is excellent, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit tacky at another season, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

A New Spin on Scrooge

Danny Dyer shows up at the beginning of this film, too, delivering a signature line for the next movie straight. Is this a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur 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 Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative unfolds as the miserly Mr Sood is confronted 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 unfortunately he’s not very captivating and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

There’s time for a network's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) talks him into blowing the money on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one snag—he discovers there was an error with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to figure out how to reimburse the excess.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the festive trappings are in the backdrop—Christmas is the environment of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a vineyard to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. During her travels, she meets a man in a bookshop who vows to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently claimed this is the finest new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a touch of class and gives the necessary heartwarming sensation.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Teenage Chris, played by Lenny Rush, continues to believe in Father Christmas, in spite of the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

The truth is to be discovered, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who come back together for the holidays—including fellow 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 the concept, but in execution it’s really a jumble of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character at last comes into her own.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s taken a dip, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the crowded field of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and strangely compelling—festive fodder.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher