There are two awful things about being single during the holidays.

1. Seeing your family.

2. Not being able to see your family.

It’s basically a crapshoot. In the first situation, you see your family, and they vaguely reference/hint/comment/interrogate you on a sliding scale of vague hinty tiptoeing to outright rebukes about wedding bells/girlfriends/seeing anyone/maybe a pet rock?, OR you don’t get to see your family due to work/weather/transportation issues, all your friends are out of town, and you’re at home alone over the holidays, still single. And just to top things off, your heat probably isn’t working.

Holy Devil-Mother of Scrooge, this sucks. Suddenly, dangerously, you’re finding all sorts of ways to rationalize your ex’s crazy obsession with argyle socks, and some non-existent intruder is drinking all your Scotch.

Now.

MAN UP.

Throw away the socks.

Surviving the holidays single can be a challenge and a really awful one at that. But if you’re going to hibernate it away, there’s some damn good movies out there to get you through it.

1. It’s a Wonderful Life

So it’s like that, is it? You’ve hit a low, sir. You’re looking for an escape away from your (forgive me) dreary life that involves a wood-laminate desk and rather conservative suit, and somehow you’ve wound up drinking at the diviest of dive bars by yourself and getting just absolutely trashed to the point where you think you’re seeing a plump, bald Renaissance angel, black out and then come to, standing on the edge of a bridge (I’m convinced that’s what really happened).

Wait. You’re still in your living room?

Good. Stay there.

And no, another glass of Scotch couldn’t hurt. After all, you’ve got it a lot better than George Bailey does.

Except for the dance/swimming pool scene. Everyone’s prom should have been like that.

2. Lord of the Rings Trilogy

The trilogy is incredibly long (we’re talking like, full-day-investment long), which means that you can hibernate for a full 24 hours, and it’s totally justifiable since you’re reliving your adolescence. And man, it’s a lifter-upper; Your life cannot possibly be any worse than having to carry a mind-controlling, soul-sucking ring that gradually weighs you down about 400 million miles over the worst terrain imagined by someone not in the video game industry while being chased by armies of orcs and a writhing Gollum.

Also, just like Sam and Frodo, you can make yourself a second breakfast (and no one’s going to judge you for those three extra strips of bacon).

3. 300

SWORDS TROY EXPLOSIONS ARMOR MEN BEING MEN SLO-MO FIGHT SCENES BATTLE HONOR WOMEN GOD-KINGS WAR SPECIAL EFFECTS BLOODSHED THIS IS SPARTAAAAAA!

(You might feel like you’re dining in hell whenever you sit down to eat over the holidays, but let’s be real: Movies don’t get much more manly than this. This can get you through a lot.)