Does The Nightmare Before Christmas make you jittery or jolly? Is it creepy or comfy? At its heart, is The Nightmare Before Christmas a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie? This question holds major implications: the correct season to watch the movie. Don’t worry, you haven’t missed The Nightmare Before Christmas season because I am here to tell you that The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Christmas movie.
Don’t let The Nightmare Before Christmas’s cast of skeletons, ghouls, witches, and boogeymen fool you. Don’t worry about the film’s main setting of Halloweentown. These elements, while they imply that The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween movie, are not representative of the movie’s plot.
The Nightmare Before Christmas’ main event takes place during the Christmas season. The movie is about Jack Skellington and his friends discovering Christmas. Therefore, the Halloween-inspired character designs are irrelevant when analyzing the season of The Nightmare Before Christmas in comparison to the much more important aspect of the movie: the plot. The plot is not driven forward by the discovery of Halloween; it is driven forward by the discovery of Christmas. If Jack Skellington had not discovered Christmastown, there would have been no adventure to follow. Further, The Nightmare Before Christmas does not take place during Halloween; it takes place during Christmas.
Even if one argues that the presence of monsters and a literal “Halloweentown” are deciding factors in determining the film’s season, which in this case would be determined as Halloween, there are still Christmas aesthetics present in the movie that suggest otherwise. When Jack Skellington travels to Christmastown, he is met with quaint houses, snow, Christmas trees, and, of course, Santa Claus (or Sandy Claws).
Importantly, these Christmas aesthetics are most prominent during the film’s climax, not during the exposition or rising action as the Halloween aesthetics are. This placement of the Christmas imagery at the most crucial points in the film—Jack failing to deliver presents to Christmastown and later rescuing Santa—elevates Christmas’s importance in the context of the plot. Christmastown is not Jack’s home, nor is Christmas the standard of Halloweentown. Instead, it is the call to action of The Nightmare Before Christmas, the initial driving force of the plot and the main event of the story.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Christmas movie because Jack Skellington and his friends weren’t moved by Halloween; they didn’t go on an adventure because of Halloween. Christmas is at the heart and soul of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Without Christmas, the residents of Halloweentown would have gone on with their spooky lives undisturbed. Christmas is the crucial catalyst that allows The Nightmare Before Christmas to exist as a movie with a plot, adventure, and themes. Therefore, The Nightmare Before Christmas is best watched bundled in a blanket by the fire on Christmas Eve.
