There is a whole cocktail of conflicting chemicals in my brain around the holidays. I appreciate the holiday, and I love spending time with my family. On the other hand, I hate people, and by people I mean crowds, and if there is a Hell month for agoraphobes, it’s December. There’s a line for everything from gas pumps to grocery stores, there’s snow on the ground so everyone has forgotten how to drive, and the entire population is battling a fresh case of Seasonal Affective Disorder. My recommendation for the holidays? Spend your evenings inside and pop in a good Christmas movie to take your mind off the rollercoaster. Here are my picks for “Top 5 Movies For Battling SAD”.

5) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) – Watch this one near the beginning of the holiday season so you have quotable lines for the rest of the month. (“Every time Catherine revved up the microwave, I’d piss my pants and forget who I was for half an hour or so.”) Also, a hot gift item this year; Cousin Eddie costumes complete with dickies, white patent shoes, and moose-shaped eggnog mugs.

4) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) – Tim Burton’s Kind-Christmas stop-motion animation film about a lovable skeleton bent on bring Christmas to Halloween-land has great character, and a wonderful slightly-twisted musical score that you won’t mind getting stuck in your head. It’s the antithesis of Christmas schtick, and I watch it every year.

3) Love Actually (2003) – This fantastic multi-threaded film about various disparate people that are connected through the “magic” of Christmas is actually a refreshingly unaffected portrait of people dealing with some real issues. It has just enough gloss and “happy-ending” to make it appropriate for the holidays, but contains enough warmth and humor to keep it out of the schmaltzy pile.

2) Scrooged (1988) – This darkly comic adaptation of Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol is the perfect remedy for those nights when you can’t stand another Hallmark commercial or rendition of Jingle Bells. Bill Murray’s slow and hilarious descent into insanity, facilitated by some great interpretations of the three ghosts of Christmas, is both depressingly funny and strangely uplifting.

1) Gremlins (1984) – The perfect “perfect gift” movie, Gremlins is a classic. The movie has enough action and suspense to keep you from slipping into hibernation, and is infused with the kind of dry, witty comedy that we crave on those long cold, chemically-depressed nights. Also, you can chase this one with Gremlins 2 and be just as satisfied.