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 devour a box of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a awful feature, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

Once again, a crop of latest Christmas films aims to become part of our holiday traditions—potentially even earning a place alongside beloved favorites like Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard (don’t start).

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

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, optimistically, on a good foot. This is the sole 2025 entry on a popular review site's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The musical trio end up stranded in the UK after finishing their world tour and must return for Christmas. Their attempts are hampered by an evil Santa, who bursts into melody to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their sibling bond.”

The banter between the squabbling siblings is enjoyable even for the uninitiated, while fans will undoubtedly pick up on lots of references as they endeavor to get back using every mode of travel possible.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

It’s not a timeless masterpiece, but is great for devotees and a good start to the day.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 for Jonas Brothers fans or 🎄🎄🎄 for their family members who will have to sit through it.

Late Morning: Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as a celebrity cast a pantomime.

“A panto-what?” asks Sutherland’s “hard-to-work-with” and aging lead Brad Mack, who has seen better days and whose representative has misled him into thinking he’s performing in prestigious English theatre.

His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. One can imagine their reply. That is, unless you’re ignorant of traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some great jokes, some heartwarming storylines, and the rest of the cast is cracking, too.

It’s the type of film that would be a bit cheesy at any other time of year, but is a great entertainment at Christmas.

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

A familiar face pops up at the beginning of this film, too, insulting someone for the next movie straight. Is this a new Christmas tradition?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who encounters Mr Sood, the latest spin 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 the filmmaker behind Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative develops as the stingy Mr Sood is haunted by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, 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 flat—a major flaw when he’s so the main character.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Lunchtime: Stuffed

Before lunch for a channel's original festive film—which stars Guz Khan as a lovably grouchy guy who “avoids Christmas.”

But after he is awarded an large festive windfall at work, his wife (starring Morgana Robinson) convinces him blowing the money on a holiday 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 devise a plan for how to return the excess.

Fun while it lasts but not lasting.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

1.12pm - Champagne Problems

This is one of those holiday movies where the festive trappings are in the background—Christmas is the setting of the film rather than its raison d’etre—but it feels warm and holiday-like all the same.

Driven corporate star Sydney (played by Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to do a deal for a champagne business. On the way, she encounters a guy in a bookshop who promises to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently stated this is the top new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a overstatement, but it is a Christmas romance with a dash of elegance and gives the required warm and fuzzy feels.

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

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄

A Charming Quest

Young 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 truth is out there, and Chris ventures forth to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known figures.

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

Festive score: 🎄🎄🎄

Late Afternoon: Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a bickering American family who reunite for the holidays—including fellow acclaimed actress Felicity Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Schwartzman, and dad Denis Leary.

Pfeiffer opens by name-dropping holiday staples like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life and Home Alone, before saying: “They need to make a movie about the real champions of the holidays—moms.”

So that’s the premise, but in reality it’s really a combination of those forerunner films, at least until Pfeiffer’s character eventually takes center stage.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

Formulaic Fun

The day’s waned in quality, but happily here’s a new addition in the crowded field of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and highly entertaining—holiday fare.

It’s a tale as well-worn: An American woman goes on a quest to a distant snowy land and ends up stumbling across romance.

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher