As the weather starts getting chilly in the fall, cozy nights in call for movie marathons featuring the best Disney Halloween movies. When we think of Halloween films to add to our list, classics like Casper come to mind.
The kid-friendly ghost movie reminds us that spooky doesn't always have to mean scary. And as temperatures plummet even further and Christmas season commences, other animated movies you may consider binging probably include A Charlie Brown Christmas. The timeline for those movies are clearly drawn, but what happens with a film like The Nightmare Before Christmas, where things are a little more blurry?
To refresh your memory, the classic 1993 movie surrounds a lonely Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who, after years of scaring people on October 31, decides to change things up after he accidentally discovers Christmas Town. Jack's goal is to take over Christmas by kidnapping Santa, and make it his new scaring holiday, but things don't exactly go his way.
So you see, we've got Halloween and Christmas mixed in here in an unusual way, so...
.... Is The Nightmare Before Christmas a Christmas or Halloween movie?
First, let's take a look at the reasons it may be considered a Christmas movie. Those on Team Christmas will tell you that the holiday spirit is apparent throughout the course of the entire movie. In fact, even though the Halloween characters aren't familiar with Christmas, they're clearly all affected and moved by it. So if you're counting, that's Team Christmas: 1 point.
Another point for The Nightmare Before Christmas being a Christmas film: the timeline. Although the majority of the movie takes place between Halloween and Christmas (meaning... November?), die-hard fans will tell you that the climax of the story actually happens on Christmas Eve. That means, timing-wise, the movie is ideal to watch during the holiday season.
But let's not forget those who believe The Nightmare Before Christmas is the perfect Halloween movie. There is some decent evidence to support this theory, beginning with the fact the movie is set in a Halloween-centric town, with its creepy residents being the film's main players. Coupled with the fact there are no songs dedicated to Christmas in the movie but three dedicated to Halloween? That's not exactly in line with the Christmas spirit. Toss in the facts the movie premiered on October 29, 1993, and Catherine O'Hara reprised her role from The Nightmare Before Christmas for a concert series 30 years later from October 27 to 29, and that's all good reason to believe this movie should sit staunchly in the Halloween canon.
Here's the most important piece of info: Those closely involved with making the film actually believe the movie has more ties to Halloween than Christmas. In a 2019 interview with USA Today, composer Danny Elfman sided with Team Halloween, saying, "It's obviously about Christmas, but for me, it's a Halloween movie." And when director Henry Selick was asked this question during a Q&A at the 2015 Colorado Telluride Horror Show film festival, he answered with four words: "It's a Halloween movie."
I don't think it can't get any more clear than that: The Nightmare Before Christmas is the ultimate Halloween movie.
