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

It is the season to slob out on the sofa and demolish a tin of mince pies in front of a good movie, a awful feature, or one that’s terrible yet terrific.

This year, a crop of fresh holiday movies aims to become part of our holiday traditions—perhaps even finding a spot alongside timeless staples 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 get into the festive feeling, I binged as many recent festive movies as possible in a single day.

7.17am - A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

Starting, hopefully, on a positive note. This film is the sole 2025 movie on a famous website's list of the greatest 100 holiday films of all time.

The musical trio end up trapped in the UK after finishing their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are thwarted by an evil Santa, who breaks into song to announce they won’t get home until they “rekindle their familial spark.”

The repartee between the arguing trio is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while devotees will no doubt pick up on lots of easter eggs as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s a journey of epic proportions.

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

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star cast a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and older action hero Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose agent has misled him into thinking he’s starring in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin cast-mates inform him he’s playing Buttons. “Oh no I’m not,” he retorts. One can imagine their retort. Except if you’re ignorant of traditional stage call-and-response.

There are some great jokes, some cockle-warming storylines, and the supporting actors is cracking, too.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer shows up at the outset of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Might this become a budding festive ritual?

This time, he’s a musical taxi operator who collects Mr Sood, the modern take 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 familiar story progresses as the miserly Mr Sood is visited by the apparitions of Christmas past, present and future, played by Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, and Boy George.

This South Asian reinterpretation is at least unique from all the others, but sadly he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s acting is lifeless—a problem when he’s so the focal point.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There's just enough time for a channel's Christmas comedy-drama—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he gets an sizable holiday payout at work, his wife (portrayed by Morgana Robinson) persuades him blowing the money on a family trip to Lapland.

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the decorations and snow are in the backdrop—Christmas is the scene of the film rather than its main point—but it feels comfortable and seasonal all the same.

Ambitious executive Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is sent to a country estate to secure an acquisition for a sparkling wine company. On the way, she runs into a man in a literary haven who offers to show her Christmas in Paris.

A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the recent era. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the required heartwarming sensation.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

Mid-Afternoon: Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, holds onto his belief in Father Christmas, regardless of the persuasion of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him otherwise.

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

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the head of a quarrelling American family who gather 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 stating: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s what this is, but in reality it’s really a combination of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally finds her strength.

Festive score: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s waned in quality, but fortunately here’s a new entry in the packed genre of formulaic, schmaltzy, badly acted—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

It’s a narrative as old as time: An American woman goes on a quest to a picturesque cold country and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher