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

It is the time of year to lounge 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.

As always, a batch of latest seasonal stories hopes to be part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even joining the ranks alongside enduring classics like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (we won’t debate it).

Therefore, in a helpful attempt to separate the winners from the losers, and to find the festive feeling, I binged as many fresh Christmas films as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Beginning, ideally, on a positive note. This film is the exclusive 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the top 100 holiday films of all time.

The musical trio end up stranded in the UK after wrapping up their world tour and must make it back for Christmas. Their endeavors are thwarted by an villainous Saint Nick, who sings to declare they won’t get home until they “find their sibling bond.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is amusing even for the casual viewer, while devotees will no doubt notice lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

Next: A Star in Panto

Famous performer Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a movie actor roped into a traditional British stage show.

“A panto-what??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing lead Brad Mack, who has hit a rough patch and whose manager has deceived him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin co-stars tell him he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he insists angrily. One can imagine their response. That is, unless you’re unfamiliar with traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming storylines, and the ensemble is brilliant, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit naff at another season, but is a lot of fun at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Morning: Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer appears at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the second film in a row. Could this be a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a crooning chauffeur who collects Mr Sood, the modern take on Mr Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mr Sood is played by The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar and Christmas Karma is directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The familiar story develops as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is visited by the apparitions 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 regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s portrayal is lifeless—a significant issue when he’s so central to everything.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

Noon: A BBC Special

There's just enough time for a network's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “isn't big on Christmas.”

But after he receives an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash on a vacation to Lapland.

There’s just one issue—he finds out there was an mix-up with his bonus, which should have been £800, and he has to determine how to reimburse the difference.

Pleasant yet unmemorable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those Christmas films where the decorations and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its main point—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

High-powered businesswoman Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is assigned to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she encounters a guy in a literary haven who vows to show her a festive Paris.

An expert 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 holiday love story with a dash of elegance and gives the necessary warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Teenage 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 otherwise.

The secret is somewhere, and Chris embarks on a quest to find it with the guidance of a group of well-known scientists and personalities.

It’s gentle but endearing, and good viewing while anticipating Santa to visit.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Star-Studded Family Drama

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a quarrelling American family who gather for the holidays—including fellow Oscar nominee 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 stating: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

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

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher