Nightmare Before (or During?) Christmas?

The Answer to a Pressing and Spooky Question

Melina Scott, Head Writer

One of the most famous Halloween movies that we watch during the spooky and jolly holidays is, without a doubt, Nightmare Before Christmas. But the question I’m here to ask is whether or not we should all as fellow Americans watch this show during Halloween or Christmas. After all, it has just as many Christmas themes as Halloween ones, and many people believe it to be more of a Christmas film. Most reactions to this would be that the main character is, you know, a skeleton, and that this movie is more about Halloween than Christmas. Another argument for it being a Halloween based movie would be the opening song that is a staple of Halloween music. “This is Halloween” literally has the name of the holiday in the title; but this still doesn’t necessarily mean that the movie should only be watched during the world’s scariest time of the year.

Many people do watch this movie during Christmas, and argue that is in fact a Christmas movie. This is most likely because of its themes involving Christmas Town and Jack Skellington’s wanting to be a part of such a nice, and much warmer feeling, little village. He feels, and is probably correct in thinking, that Halloween Town is less favorable than Christmas Town simply because of how much brighter and happier the latter is. Jack spends a lot of time in Christmas Town, after all, and it seems like a strong advocation could be made for this being a Christmas movie.

Unfortunately, director Henry Selick is here to prove all of you that think it’s a Christmas movie wrong. He says that Nightmare Before Christmas is “definitely a Halloween movie”. After all, with a Pumpkin King and his Frankenstein-like girlfriend as two of the main characters, how couldn’t it be? The movie’s simply too spooky to be predominantly a Christmas film, but we certainly aren’t discouraging you from watching it during both holidays. But after all that, maybe it is called Nightmare Before Christmas for a reason.