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Haunting or Merry: How Does “The Nightmare Before Christmas” Fall?
For many years there has been a debate about Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” film and whether or not it is a Halloween or Christmas movie. According to a self conducted survey about 25% of students think it is a Christmas movie and 75% think it is a Halloween movie.
People like to consider it a Halloween movie because it was released two days before Halloween in 1993. Similarly, while watching the movie these same people did not feel the Christmas spirit.
Peers Views on “The Nightmare Before Christmas”
“The Nightmare before Christmas is 100% a Halloween movie. Last Christmas my mom and I decided to watch it for the first time and we did not feel the Christmas spirit. First of all, the movie was released in October, the month of Halloween. There is tons of fright and disgust in the movie, not at all what a Christmas movie should bring to the table. Jack does all of the wrong things to make an improved Christmas, he wanted to be beautiful just like the beauty of Christmas, but that’s not how things are in Halloweentown. Personally, I would not watch this during Christmas time, just Halloween as it portrays the complete opposite of Christmas throughout.
– Piper Duryea ‘26 said.
Others believe the film to fall in the Christmas category for literal and figurative reasons.
“The Nightmare Before Christmas is totally a Christmas movie for multiple reasons. Number one: the word ‘Christmas’ is legitimately in the title. Secondly, the point of the movie is Jack Skellington plans to invade Christmastown and take over the holiday, which implies that the main mission of the movie involves Christmas, not Halloween. Also, no one in their life has ever watched this movie during Halloween. Even if they believe it to be a Halloween movie, no one watches it in October,” Connor Stewart ‘26 said.
While Stewart thinks that no one watches the movie in October, Shaylee Smith ‘24 thinks that it is okay for people to watch it during Halloween.
Why “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is a Christmas Movie
“I think it’s okay to watch it during Halloween but it’s definitely a Christmas movie, most of it is about setting up and learning about Christmas,” Smith said.Why
I think that “The Nightmare Before Christmas”is a Christmas movie because Jack Skellington sees how beautiful Christmastown is and decides to make it his own. Though he does do it in an evil way, as evil is the only thing he knows. On Christmas day, Jack Skellington replaces ‘Sandy Claws’ and brings Christmas to Halloweentown. He also gives the kids scary toys, but in his eyes, those are good toys. When he sees that he has ruined the spirit of Christmas he then sees that he is not fit for Christmas and gives Santa his title back.
Through this whole process, Jack sees and learns the true meaning of Christmas and sees how happy the season makes people. In all Christmas movies the main character learns the true meaning of Christmas or finds the holiday spirit. In this movie, Jack finds both of these things.
Edward Rose, who previously worked at Hollywood Video, had hands-on experience with the stocking and selling of “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
“I worked for a video rental store called Hollywood Video. It was before streaming. On weekends you’d have to go to the movie store and they had walls of videos and DVD’s. Every Christmas season ‘The Nightmare before Christmas’ was totally rented out and It was hard to get,” Rose said.
The Proof is in the Sales: Hollywood Video
Although Hollywood Video was sold out of this movie during the Christmas season and the movie is about Jack Skellington finding the Christmas spirit as well as seeing the beauty of it. Others think it is a Halloween movie because Jack was born in Halloween Town and the movie takes place in that town. Jack is also known as the pumpkin king in the movie and all of the characters in the town are supposed to be scary and evil.
Final Analysis: Christmas Movie
Instead of Jack taking Christmas in a good way, his helpers made ‘Sandy Claws’ have a bad experience in Halloweentown and tortured him. Jack had also taken over Santa’s role and had given the town his own gifts, which he thought were good gifts but were actually bad gifts.
No matter how many debates people have about this topic, at the end of the day, people will always disagree whether it is a Christmas or Halloween movie. Even if Tim Burton and Henry Selick as well as other crew members have confirmed in the past that this movie is indeed a Halloween movie, I will still continue to believe it is a Christmas movie.
