There are heaps of things to complain about during winter. Here are my suggestions:

1. The weather.
2. It gets dark early.
3. It takes a long time to get dressed in the morning because of the many LAYERS.
4. All your shoes have holes in them.
5. That old injury has started hurting again.
6. The goddamn gloom.

Despite all this, there are lots of reasons to like winter: there are many opportunities for hot drinks! You develop a new-found appreciation for the warmth of your toaster and/or stovetop! You can wear a blanket on your head and shuffle around like a blanket ghost and this is considered totally normal! Yay, winter! But my favourite thing about winter is that I can watch Christmas movies and relate to scenes of snowy fields and frosty windows, and songs about foggy breath and dancing snowmen. I find these things less easy to relate to in December, which is the season for paddling pools and finding shade.

So, as I sit here with a cup of tea and piece of Vegemite toast in hand, and a blanket on my head, please take a look at my favourite Christmas movies and maybe we can all spread the winter cheer this July:

Psycho

I often say the worst thing about poor Marion Crane's demise – other than the fact she was horribly murdered in the shower by a man dressed as his mother – is the fact she was horribly murdered in the shower by a man dressed as his mother in the weeks before CHRISTMAS. This is established in the first scene, when the camera seems to float and glide towards a Phoenix, Arizona hotel room window and "December the Eleventh, Two Forty-Three P.M." appears on screen. Psycho is probably the closest Hitchcock ever came to making a Christmas movie and while it doesn't have cheerful scenes of snowball fights and mugs of cocoa, it has its own special yuletide charm.

It's A Wonderful Life

It makes sense for It's A Wonderful Life to be set during a bleak and cold winter: it's so uplifting, so affirming, and so full of hope that its effects on the human body are as warming as any fan heater. The film is about George Bailey (James Stewart), a good man who feels crushed by disappointment and obligation. Once upon a time George dreamt about travelling the world and building skyscrapers, but never accomplished his goals. Instead, after his father died, he had to stay home to run the family business and watch his dreams, ideas and ambitions become more and more impossible. Admittedly this little summary doesn't sound very cheerful, but that's the point: the feelings of warmth and joy It's A Wonderful Life inspires are the product of George overcoming his utter despair and hopelessness and realising his life, despite its disappointments, is really very wonderful. There's a special kind of magic in watching George slip and slide on the snowy ground as he yells, "Merry Christmas!" over and over and over again. It's a magic that can only happen when his sadness is transformed into joy and the world becomes full of wonder and hope again.

White Christmas

The first time the song "White Christmas" appeared on screen was in the 1942 film Holiday Inn, which also starred Bing Crosby. In that film, Bing sings, dances and celebrates the season with some blackface, which not only makes Holiday Inn maybe the worst Christmas movie ever, but also makes the song "White Christmas" seem much more sinister. Thankfully in White Christmas – the film based on the song made 12 years after Holiday Inn – the blackface routine has been scrapped and the feel-good factor has been intensified. Without the distracting spectre of bigotry, the film allows us to focus on the true meaning of Christmas: saving someone's business through song, dance and sequinned costumes.

Home Alone

As a small child in 1990, there were few people as scary as Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci and few characters as heroic as Kevin McCallister. Home Alone played into all the dreams I'd ever had about being an autonomous and self-sufficient child – if Kevin could not only survive in his house without adult supervision, but also outwit and outsmart two adult burglars, all while ordering pizza, then there was no reason why I couldn't do the same! Yay! (Note: my dreams never came true). As an adult I've realised, though, the best part about it isn't the booby-trapped obstacle course Kevin sets up, but the scary, bearded neighbour who talks about the importance of family and the real meaning of Christmas. Christmas isn't all about setting people on fire, but about hugs and reconciliation set to John Williams's "The Carol of the Bells". It's heart warming. It's beautiful. It's painful.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Christmas rituals are made more difficult in cold climates. Putting up Christmas lights and acquiring a Christmas tree are both made more difficult by layers of clothing; metres of snow; and howling, face-freezing winds that make the outdoors a hostile and unpleasant place to be. Watching Christmas Vacation during winter, then, makes Clark (Chevy Chase) a much more sympathetic character. When he struggles with Christmas lights, we struggle with Christmas lights. When his turkey explodes, our turkey explodes. The agony of fighting the elements for a perfect Christmas is made more understandable and much more real when the weather outside matches the weather on screen. This turns Clark into less of a deranged Christmas zealot and more of a fearless, heroic pioneer determined to overcome his environment. There's a lesson here for all of us.

Elf

If you do not care for Elf, I do not care for you. Elf is the best. Elf is awesome. Elf has a scene where the power of Christmas spirit gets Santa's sleigh back in the air. Where does this power come from? People singing. Awww yeaaaahhhh. Elf tells the story of an orphaned human baby who was raised in the North Pole after crawling into a sack of Santa's toys. As an adult, the human Buddy the Elf (Will Ferrell) discovers his real identity and travels back to New York City to find his family. Needless to say, neither Buddy nor New York City are prepared for one another. Hilarity ensues. Elf doesn't try to redefine what makes a great Christmas movie—like heaps of other Christmas movies it's about finding family and your place in the world against the backdrop of holiday cheer—but it goes down the familiar, snowy path so absurdly, so joyously and so enthusiastically it ends up being THE BEST.