Gateway Horror: Kids These Days Still Know About Christmas Town
Thoughts on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the importance of doing what you love.
As spooky season is over, so Christmas season is creeping in. In the coming months, I will be writing about winter and Christmas horror, starting with a movie that’s right in between spooky season and Christmas, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Now, as I’m sure you all know, The Nightmare Before Christmas is quite the phenomenon. There have been countless tributes, cosplays, parties, and more in the twenty one years since its release in 1993. Various celebrities have performed Sally’s Song over the years, and Jack and Sally, as well as the other residents of Halloween Town are a common sight in Halloween decorations, costumes, and inflatables. But why?
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a staple for many reasons. The first is its visuals. Beautifully hand-animated with thousands upon thousands of clay miniatures and lights, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a sight to behold. The amount of hard work and love that went into the making of this movie is clear in every frame, and, because of that work and care, the characters are instantly recognizable, to the point where even people who haven’t seen the movie know who they are.
The second reason for the noteriety The Nightmare Before Christmas has is its musical numbers. Hand-drawn animation has always been beloved (see: early Disney, The Iron Giant, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, etc.), but hand-sculpted animation with gothic aesthetics and catchy musical numbers is just on another level. The music in The Nightmare Before Christmas is catchy, creepy, and danceable, all written and performed by the inimitable Danny Elfman. From quick, excited patter songs about discovering Christmas to slow, sad ballads about the fear of losing what you love, the music in The Nightmare Before Christmas is incomparable, and contributes in large part of its staying power.
The third reason for the phenomenon that The Nightmare Before Christmas became is its targeting of younger audiences. The Nightmare Before Christmas is for kids, in a way that a lot of creepy things aren’t. This means that generations of kids have grown up with it, up to and including my five year old cousin. Kids growing up with spooky stuff that’s written for them to enjoy leads to those kids becoming adults that enjoy more grown-up spooky stuff and all of the benefits and joy that come with it. Those adults never forget the first creepy thing they watched, and for a lot of people, that’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Because of that, those adults want to keep kids - their own, their friends’, their siblings’ - watching that movie, which leads to more art and merchandise being created around it as those kids watch it, which leads to even more people watching, and around and around it goes.
The fourth and final reason that The Nightmare Before Christmas is what it is today is its message. It’s a fairly simple one, but an important one, nonetheless. The Nightmare Before Christmas asks that you remember why you do the things you do, even when they get tiring, because you usually do them because you love them. Everyone needs to remember that doing the things you do out of love, and being happy for it, is one of the most important things you can do. In times like these, when the next couple years bring with them promises of real-life terrors, it’s vital to remember that the things you do are, and always will be, essential.
So, for the next two weeks before I talk to you all again, keep with you the spirits of The Pumpkin King, of love for your people and your community, and of the little kid you once were, being whisked away to Halloween Town, never to be the same again.
