Is 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' a Christmas Movie or a Halloween Movie?

Facts from the original

• Usually it's easy to tell which holiday a movie celebrates, but The Nightmare Before Christmas is in a category all its own for holiday-movie debate.
• Iron Man 3 (2013) takes place around Christmastime, with holiday decor and lots of hot chocolate, and Disney+ caused an uproar when it added the film to the Christmas category, though few consider it a Christmas movie.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas is a stop-motion classic whose plot follows Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town and patron spirit of Halloween, who tires of year-round Halloween and hatches a scheme to kidnap Santa Claus and take over Christmas.
• The debate over which holiday the film celebrates has divided people in real life and on Twitter for years.
• Under the rules-of-thumb logic, a holiday movie generally takes place during that holiday and its characters celebrate or at least mention it.
• People have argued the movie is actually a Thanksgiving film because it takes place between Halloween and Christmas.
• The film was originally released in theaters on October 29, 1993.
• Christmas movie season typically kicks into high gear in mid-November.
• Danny Elfman made his view public in a 2019 interview with USA Today.
• Henry Selick gave his answer during a 2015 Q&A at Colorado's Telluride Horror Show film festival.
• The film features a countdown to Christmas Day and includes a Thanksgiving Town.
• The Easter Bunny appears in the movie.