Every year around Christmastime, debates rage as to whether a given movie is a Christmas movie. Die Hard is a Christmas movie because it takes place during Christmas and Christmas decorations are seen throughout, according to the Christmas Movie Alignment Chart. A similar case could be made for J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: after all, its full of elves and the Quest of the Ring begins on Christmas Day.
Perhaps it should be obvious, but Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (henceforth “Nightmare”) is a Christmas movie, and one of the best. While Burton self-consciously wanted to create a claymation Christmas special in the molds of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and The Year Without A Santa Claus, Nightmare excels them all in its ad fontes return to the themes and tone of the original Christmas story.
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