October ushers in so many great Halloween movies: Beetlejuice, Hocus Pocus, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, or Ree Drummond's favorite horror series, Halloween.
But if there's one movie from the '90s worth watching, it's Tim Burton's stop-motion classic: The Nightmare Before Christmas. That said, the plot is pretty seasonally confused.
On one hand, it's a movie in which the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, Jack Skellington, schemes to overtake the holiday of Christmas. There's a kooky cast of characters: a two-faced town mayor, a ghost dog, a mad scientist and his monster creation, a trio of maniacal trick-or-treaters, and an underground villain named Oogie Boogie. In the countdown to December 25, they wrap gift packages of haunted toys, resurrect a team of skeleton reindeer, and all of this is done in an eerily cheerful sing-song manner.
(If you've never seen this movie, we'll be the first to admit how deranged this all sounds.) 😅
On the other hand, it ends with the last-minute saving of Santa Claus and a teachable moment about the spirit of giving—and Christmas is literally in the title.
So, which is it? Is The Nightmare Before Christmas a Halloween movie?
Is 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' considered a Halloween or Christmas movie?
If you ask the director, Henry Selick, he has a very direct answer. As you can imagine, the original cast and crew have been asked this exact question over the years.
"It's a Halloween movie," Henry confirmed during a Q&A about the movie at Colorado's Telluride Horror Show film festival in 2015.
Danny Elfman, the movie's music composer and singing voice of Jack Skellington, agrees. "It's obviously about Christmas, but for me, it's a Halloween movie," he said in an interview with USA TODAY. "Growing up, Halloween was my favorite night of the year and Christmas was a troublesome time. Into my adult years, it was a time where a bit of a dark cloud would follow me around—probably carrying over from my childhood until I had my own kids—and then I developed a new, brighter view of Christmas."
Tim Burton is known for his always spooky, sometimes scary movies for kids. Think: Edward Scissorhands, Frankenweenie, and Coraline—all of which easily make sense to watch around Halloween. As the creative mastermind behind this movie, wouldn't it make sense that The Nightmare Before Christmas is also meant to be watched on Halloween?
Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'
Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'
Consider the timeline, too: The Nightmare Before Christmas was originally released in theaters on October 29, 1993—just in the nick of time for Halloween but well in advance of the Christmas season.
That's in direct parallel with the movie's plot! In the opening scene of the movie, characters are celebrating the night of All Hallows Eve and the whole thing culminates on Christmas Eve. (But then if that takes place over November, is there an argument to be made for this as a Thanksgiving movie? Let's not go down that route—it's too much for us to handle! 🤯)
What do you think? Do you think The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween movie or meant for the holidays? Sound off in the comments!
Alexandra Churchill is the Deputy Editor at The Pioneer Woman, overseeing the site's strategy in topics of food and cooking, home and life, beauty and style, crafts, and holidays.
