Is ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ a Christmas or Halloween movie?
It’s December which could only mean a new wave of holiday classics will swarm television sets in hopes to make a lasting impression into a traditional holiday classic. A noticeable feature that holiday season is upon us is the unveiling of Freeform’s 25 Days of Christmas. Starting Dec. 1 the network will be showing five or more holiday films a day throughout the month.
As I was scrolling through the line-up, I noticed the “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was included on the kickoff of 25 Days of Christmas then I started counting the number of times the movie was being shown, and the total came to 11 times throughout the month. This made me wonder if “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is considered a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie.
I went back to Freeform`s 31 Nights of Halloween to see if the movie was shown as much during October. I counted only seven showings of the film. The unevenness of screen time made me start contemplating if this film is a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie?
Growing up with this film I have always applied it to Halloween, even more so in recent years. The new popularity of this film has reintroduced it to younger audiences and has turned the film into a marketing platform. The film has now become profitable as party stores began selling themed decorations and toys and costumes fill department stores.
The story of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, stubbles across a forest of trees with dawned with holiday attributions: Easter, Christmas, and St. Patty`s Day. Jack goes into the Christmas tree, discovering the festivities behind the holiday. He then brings back those festivities to share with Halloweentown to recreate with the town’s own twist.
The great debate was officially addressed at a Q&A for the Telluride Horror Show when “The Nightmare Before Christmas” director Henry Selick revealed the film is, in fact, a Halloween film. The creators of Freeform’s holiday lineup may need to do some readjusting to formatting both of their Halloween and Christmas guides. Maybe they could have removed some of “Hocus Pocus” time slots since it was shown a whopping 28 times throughout October.
