20 essential classic holiday films to watch this year

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Like the contentious debate about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not, an equally feverish debate rages about whether The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween or Christmas movie. I’m ready to end the discussion once and for all (for the purposes of this article, at least) and declare it a Christmas movie.

Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon) is the King of Halloweentown, but he’s suffering from ennui. Bored with doing the same thing every year, he wanders around and comes upon a series of trees, opening the doors to different holidays. He stumbles upon Christmas Town and, enchanted by the snow and twinkling lights, decides to take it over in his neck of the woods. Kidnapping Santa Claus is just the start of what Jack has in store, but it ends up threatening the security of both holidays.

Directed by Henry Selick of Coraline fame and written by Tim Burton, The Nightmare Before Christmas is all kinds of spooky, haunting, and fun. The songs are classics, with nearly everyone being able to hum “This is Halloween.” But, for me, the Christmas scenes are the best. Watching Jack enjoy the “good feeling all around” while celebrating Christmas makes you see the appeal of the holiday. It’s just unfortunate that Jack wants to throw skeleton heads over all of it.

Stream on Hulu.