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

It is the season to relax on the sofa and devour a box of holiday pastries in front of a great film, a poor film, or one that’s so bad it’s good.

This year, a selection of fresh seasonal stories strives to join part of our seasonal watchlist—maybe even finding a spot 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 get into the holiday mood, I binged as many new festive movies as possible in a single day.

First Up: The Jonas Brothers' Holiday Flick

Beginning, ideally, on a positive note. This is the only 2025 entry on a famous website's list of the top 100 Christmas movies of all time.

The popular band end up stranded in the UK after wrapping up their international trek and must return for Christmas. Their efforts are hampered by an evil Santa, who sings to state they won’t get home until they “rediscover their familial spark.”

The repartee between the bickering brothers is entertaining even for the uninitiated, while devotees will no doubt catch lots of references as they attempt to get back using any means of transport necessary.

It’s private planes, trains and automobiles.

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

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

8.45am - Tinsel Town

A-list actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as a Hollywood star cast a traditional British stage show.

“A what's a panto??” asks Sutherland’s “temperamental” and ageing action hero Brad Mack, who has fallen on hard times and whose agent has deceived him into thinking he’s appearing in high-class London stage.

His Aladdin co-stars let him know he’s playing Buttons. “No I'm not,” he retorts. It's easy to predict their retort. Except if you’re unfamiliar with traditional panto catchphrases.

There are some hilarious moments, some heartwarming storylines, and the supporting actors is brilliant, too.

It’s the kind of movie that would be a bit tacky at a different time, but is a highly enjoyable at Christmas.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

10.19am - Christmas Karma

Danny Dyer appears at the start of this film, too, insulting someone for the second consecutive movie. Is this a fresh holiday staple?

This time, he’s a singing black cab driver who picks up Mr Sood, the newest interpretation 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 director of Gurinder Chadha. The classic narrative progresses as the tight-fisted Mr Sood is haunted by the ghosts 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 regrettably he’s not very charismatic and Nayyar’s performance is flat—a major flaw when he’s so central to everything.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

12.04pm - Stuffed

There's just enough time for a major broadcaster's holiday special—which stars Guz Khan as a charmingly cantankerous character who “doesn’t really do Christmas.”

But after he gets an £8,000 Christmas bonus at work, his wife (played by Morgana Robinson) talks him into splurging the cash on a family trip to Lapland.

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

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄

A Classy Netflix Romance

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

Ambitious executive Sydney (starring Minka Kelly) is dispatched to a French chateau to secure an acquisition for a champagne business. En route, she runs into a fellow in a bookshop who offers to show her the holidays in the City of Light.

A critic recently claimed this is the best new Christmas film of the last several seasons. That’s a bit of a exaggeration, but it is a holiday love story with a touch of class and gives the obligatory cozy feelings.

The scene with a lengthy discussion about Die Hard is notable too.

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

3.29pm - Finding Father Christmas

Young Chris, played by Lenny Rush, refuses to stop believing in Father Christmas, despite the attempts of his dad (played by James Buckley) to tell him the truth.

The secret is out there, and Chris sets out to find it with the expert help of a panel of well-known scientists and personalities.

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

Christmas tree rating: 🎄🎄🎄

4.39pm - Oh. What. Fun.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the matriarch of a dysfunctional American family who gather for the holidays—including other 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 what this is, but in execution it’s really a jumble of those inspirations, at least until Pfeiffer’s character finally comes into her own.

Holiday verdict: 🎄🎄

6.43pm - A Scottish Christmas Secret

The day’s taken a dip, but fortunately here’s a new offering in the saturated market of cliched, saccharine, over-the-top—and utterly watchable—seasonal comfort food.

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

In this case, Caprice Bourret plays a publisher