According to this Lancer journalist, ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ is a Halloween movie through-and-through. “the Nightmare before Christmas” by hjw223 (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, released two days before Halloween 1993, was a movie that dove into two believed holiday – Halloween and Christmas. The story takes place a mythical land of holidays, and follows the story of spooky Christmas take over. Since its release over 30 years ago, an age-old debate was created: Is this excellent movie meant for the Halloween season or the Christmas one?

Christmas Elements in the Movie

When Jack Skellington, Pumpkin King of Halloween Town and story’s protagonist, is depressed after Halloween, he goes on a journey, and ends up Christmas Town. The song about Christmas that Jack sings, “What’s This?”, and the ambience that Burton creates makes for a beautiful holiday scene. This details makes those who watch feel warm and gooey inside. From seeing this, Jack, who is still in a depressive episode, decides that he is going to recreate and take over Christmas, and goes back to Halloween Town to tell people this. While we were just in Christmas Town, the setting suddenly returns to its regular, creepy-self, when Jack returns to Halloween Town to tell his community of their new project. 

From there, the Halloween Town works hard to make the community as ‘Christmassy’ as possible, and to make Jack Skellington the new Santa Claus. So, although the setting during the Christmas Town scene is gorgeous, Jack Skellingtown is only there for one night, and the amount of time Tim Burton shows in the actual movie is a lot less. 

The story also revolves around the rescue of Santa Claus, which means he does play a prominent part in the movie, and some might even argue, is the hero after Jack goes off the deep end.

Halloween Elements in the Movie

One of the most iconic scenes in Tim Burton’s film, A Nightmare Before Christmas, is the opening scene with the song “This is Halloween.” In this scene, we get an introduction to the creepy characters, the mysterious scene, and the funny quips that are all a part of Halloween Town. This scene embodies everything that Halloween is about. Burton’s ability to establish the characters and give the setting a strong sense of ghoulish delight makes the entire movie feel Halloween-esque right off the bat. 

Additionally, most of the songs, excluding “What’s This?”, are very Halloween themed. Since most of the songs are about either the main character who is very Halloween themed, or the holiday as a whole, the argument can be made that the songs make the movie seem very Halloween overall. 

Similarly, the movie has a lot of astonishing characters, but the main thing connecting most of them is that they are Halloween based. Aside from the pinnacle of Christmas characters, Mr. Santa Claus himself, the main characters mainly consist of All Hallows Eve people. There is a reason that Tim Burton made Jack Skellington the main character of the movie, not Santa Claus! These characters include Sally, the monster  of Dr. Finkelstein; Oogie Boogie, the boogie man himself; the mayor, the scary “two-faced” politician; and a plethora of witches, clowns and demons. Heck, even one of the little kids has an ax through his head!

Moreover, the movie has a dark and grim aesthetic overall, which highlights the Halloween theme by making the Halloween Town seem uninviting and hair-raising. It makes the characters seem more terrifying than they actually are, since they are only surrounded by themselves. In fact, the characters are only happy because they are terrorizing others, not because they are being bad people, but because that is their job in Halloween Town. Adding on, the elements in the movie are mostly Halloween-ish, with scary toys being used when Jack is the new Santa, which is not full of comfort and joy.

Closing Argument

All in all, A Nightmare before Christmas is clearly a Halloween movie.

Both the protagonist and antagonist are Halloween characters, not one based on Kris Kringle. Jack is a skeleton, and Oogie Boogie is a terrifying delight. Additionally, on top of the overall dark aesthetic, the presence of spooky characters, the Halloween-centric town, and the prevalence of the song’s impact on the movies make the film one for spooky season.