The Great Debate: The Nightmare Before Christmas

There has been a debate for many years regarding one popular movie: The Nightmare Before Christmas. Some of you may be wondering, what could spark a debate with this popular 1993 film, and some of you might already know of the on-going debate. I asked some college students to argue their answer to the question “Is ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie?”, to see where people on campus stand with the age-old debate. Here are the arguments:

 Christmas:

Stephanie V.: “It’s all about Christmas, just not in the way we generally think about Christmas. All the merchandise comes out at Christmas, people re-watch it at Christmas, and it’s a movie about bringing Christmas into a group that generally doesn’t do Christmas.”

Halloween:

Holly A.: “I think The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween movie because it has to do with improving the Halloween from the year before. The characters steal Christmas to make Christmas into Halloween. The movie begins with Halloween, and it ends with Halloween. The movie is not about Christmas. It is about investigating and stealing Christmas to incorporate it with Halloween.”

Sofia M.: “Definitely a Halloween movie! A lot of decorations people put out for Halloween are Jack Skellington and he’s rarely seen around Christmas. Although it’s a mixture of both holidays, it definitely favors Halloween more. It shows that Halloween doesn’t have to be all scary and gross but could have different meanings as well!”

Both:

Emily A.: “It holds both Christmas and Halloween themes, but focuses more on Christmas in its values. Every family friendly Halloween movie has its “horror” elements while still maintaining a PG rating. However, The Nightmare Before Christmas is upside down.  

Josh S.: “It’s a transitional movie. It’s a movie I would watch around Thanksgiving to bridge the gap between the two holidays.”

BUT it’s upside down instead of a traditional bad guy is a secondary character that goes after the protagonist out main character is the antagonist right so we need to keep that in mind when talking about the Halloween aspect BUT it hold CHRISTMAS values coming together to solve the problem happy endings bla bla bla BUT ITS THE HORROR HAPPENING WITHIN CHRISTMAS the inherent terror of a man breaking into your house it takes the traditional Christmas movie elements and applies it to the bad guys!!! it’s hocus pocus from the Sanderson sisters POV where they learn their lesson on about cultural appropriation or something

it’s a Christmas movie in its values but a Halloween movie is aesthetic???

like the creators say it’s a Halloween movie and i think of it as a Halloween movie before Christmas but it can be both

In a 2019 interview with New Musical Express, composer of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Danny Elfman, revealed that the popular movie is indeed a Halloween movie. 

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