Binge-Watching The Latest Christmas Films: Highlights, Lowlights, and Unexpected Delights.

It is the season to lounge on the sofa and devour a box of festive treats in front of a terrific flick, a bad movie, or one that’s awesomely awful.

This year, a selection of fresh seasonal stories hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—perhaps even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (no arguments).

Therefore, in a helpful attempt to distinguish the gems from the coal, and to find the festive feeling, I watched as many new Christmas films as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Starting, hopefully, on a high. This release is the only 2025 movie on a popular review site's list of the greatest 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The Jonas Brothers are stuck in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must get home for Christmas. Their endeavors are hampered by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rekindle their brotherly magic.”

The back-and-forth between the arguing trio is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while devotees will certainly catch lots of references as they attempt to get back using all transportation available.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their relatives who will have to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland stars as a Hollywood star roped into a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging star Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin co-stars inform him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. It's easy to predict their retort. Unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some hilarious moments, some touching storylines, and the rest of the cast is brilliant, too.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

An actor appears at the beginning of this film, too, calling someone a mug for the second consecutive movie. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur 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 familiar story unfolds as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas yesterday, today, and tomorrow, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least unique from all the others, but unfortunately he’s not very compelling and Nayyar’s portrayal is flat—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There’s time for a major broadcaster's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he receives an large festive windfall at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) convinces him splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the tree, fairy lights and snow are in the background—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels cosy and festive all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is sent to a vineyard to negotiate a purchase for a champagne business. En route, she runs into a fellow in a bookshop who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic 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 festive dalliance with a hint of sophistication and gives the necessary cozy feelings.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Sixteen-year-old Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the efforts of his dad (starring James Buckley) to tell him the reality.

The answer is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the guidance of a group of well-known experts and celebrities.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering 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 holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before stating: “They need to make a movie about the true heroes of the holidays—moms.”

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the saturated market of predictable, sentimental, cheesy—and strangely compelling—holiday fare.

It’s a story as well-worn: An American woman journeys to a far-off wintery locale and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher