On TV I would see exquisitely wrapped packages with big velvety bows piled high under a shimmering tree. A kitchen table groaning under a mountain of delicious mouth-watering cakes and jellies and hams. Snow, of course, and people. Lots and lots of people. People who all actually liked one another. Because Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in television-land is always about being surrounded by people you love and who love you.

Little did I realise at the time that these "perfect" Christmas seasons ended as soon as the cameras stopped rolling. The fake snow and plastic hams would be stored until next year's show - assuming there would be a next year since the two lead actors usually hated each other and the child star was one step away from holding up a liquor store or posing nude for Playboy.

Unlike what you see on TV, thousands of people will be celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Day alone, for myriad reasons. If you are in that category, this blog entry is for you. Here are some of my favourite movies and books that offer hope and cheer for those who are lonely and alone.

Lost in Translation is one of my all-time favourite films. It's a gentle story dealing with themes of loneliness and disconnection from where you are and who you're with. Bill Murray plays a jaded movie star who is in Tokyo to film some TV commercials. Scarlett Johansson plays a disillusioned young newlywed. Together both characters are searching for some meaning to their lives. And together they find it in, among other places, a Tokyo karaoke bar.

The ultimate feel-good "I'm scared I'm going to die alone in a flat" book and movie is, of course, Bridget Jones's Diary by author Helen Fielding. The story opens with the extraordinarily average Bridget spending another New Year's Eve alone, listening to tragic singles music like REO Speedwagon and deciding that in the next 12 months she is going to take control of her life. Which she does, sort of, if you don't count the bit where she makes blue-string soup. And dates her womanising boss. And wears really, really big granny knickers.

It's a Wonderful Life starred the legendary Jimmy Stewart and while it bombed at the box office when released in 1946, today it's considered a classic. The story opens on Christmas Eve, in the fictional town of Bedford Falls, where George Bailey is contemplating suicide. Broke and feeling as though the world would be better off without him, George is about to end it all when an angel appears and shows him what life would actually have been like if he'd never been born. This film is a joyful and timely reminder of the power of the individual to make profound, if unknowing, changes in the lives of other people.

If you're looking for something with an Aussie flavour you could rent Japanese Story or go to the cinema and catch one of the final sessions of Look Both Ways. Both films explore isolation and the fragility of human relationships.

Of course, if you're looking for a laugh, Home Alone or Only the Lonely may be more the order of the day. And for a story about the power of friendship, there is E. B. White's best-loved book Charlotte's Web.

I'll finish this weblog entry with a Christmas quote from American comedian Jay Leno. "The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C.. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin."

Wacka. Wacka.