Is The Nightmare Before Christmas a Halloween or Christmas movie?
Tim Burton’s classic movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is loved by many Halloween and Christmas movie goers, but there’s often some debate surrounding the movie. The question of whether it is a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie is brought up a lot during the festive months of October through December. However, this debate can easily be squashed with just a few reasons. The Nightmare Before Christmas is obviously a Halloween movie.
The story itself revolves around the idea of Jack Skellington eventually being proud of his holiday, Halloween. Throughout the movie he tries to imitate Christmas and Santa Claus, with him even going as far as getting Santa kidnapped. Throughout the movie, the story eventually circles back to Halloween when Jack learns to appreciate his holiday.
More horror elements are used to give a spooky atmosphere to the film. If it were a Christmas movie, you’d expect it to have a more jolly, cozy, and heartwarming feel much like common Christmas films. However, the use of these horror aesthetics creates a completely opposite feeling, making it very fitting to enjoy during the Halloween season.
Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town. If this were a Christmas movie, it wouldn’t make much sense to have the Pumpkin King star as the main character. It would make more sense if Santa Claus was the main character and the movie showed his experience of getting kidnapped by Skellington’s henchmen and eventually saving Christmas. However, the movie’s focus remains on Jack and his own experience, feelings and ideas.
I can understand how some can argue that at the movies core, it could be considered a Christmas movie due to the majority of the plot centering around Christmas instead of Halloween. Even though a lot of the story does rely on Christmas, it circles back to Halloween at the end.
This debate is over, the Nightmare before Christmas is so obviously a Halloween movie. Society needs to stop with the Christmas stuff and accept the fact that it’s a Halloween movie.
