The Nightmare Before Christmas leaves some pretty huge details unexplained, as the story introduces several holiday worlds, but only actually explores two. The Nightmare Before Christmas continues to be incredibly popular even 30 years after the film actually debuted. Inspired by a poem written by Tim Burton, the film is a fascinating exploration of a parallel world filled with monsters and ghouls who prepare all year round to celebrate Halloween by crossing into the real world and scaring everyone.
However, the film also slips in some incredible lore at the very top, with there being seven holiday worlds that exist next to the real world. Each of these realms can be accessed through a magical tree which features a decorative image of something to do with each world. These worlds are related to Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Independence Day, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, and Valentine’s Day. Despite the doors being a prominent part of the film’s story, only two of these worlds are explored, Halloween and Christmas, while the rest are left unexplored.
9 Halloween
Halloween is the central focus of the movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. At the top of the film, the monsters can be seen returning from a successful Halloween night, and the Mayor of Halloween Town immediately wants to start planning for next year. While the Mayor is the elected leader of the town, he also remarks that, as an elected official, he can’t make any real changes, and he relies on Jack Skellington to actually bring things to pass. Jack is the Pumpkin King, the ruler of the town, and the individual who stands as a guardian to the holiday.
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Halloween looks like a world taken straight from horror films, with dark overdrawn skies, lightning and thunder clashing, graves, monsters, and black and gray everywhere. The world and its inhabitants derive their greatest pleasure from scaring others. However, Jack grew tired of his life in Halloween Town, and craved adventure and exploration as he looked to the other holidays in order to find some larger meaning and purpose for his own life.
8 Christmas
Christmas, exactly as the name would suggest, is the embodiment of Christmas. The world is home to Santa, who acts as the guardian of that realm, and there are bright decorative lights, snow, and gifts everywhere. This world is also a home to many people who get the joy of living in a perpetual state of Christmas, and presumably all the elves who build toys for children ahead of Christmas. The world is also full of hope, happiness and joy, which appears to be a sharp contrast to the dark and dreary feelings that exist throughout Halloween.
In The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack stumbles into this world after walking through the door which was shaped like a Christmas tree. Once inside, Jack Skellington is enchanted by the beauty, wonder, and amazement of this brand-new holiday. So much so that he decides he would like to take up the job of running Christmas instead of Halloween. He calls on some of his nefarious monsters, and has them rush away to steal Santa, so they can put Jack in his place as the ruler of Christmas and Halloween.
7 Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving exists as one of the worlds where very little detail is revealed in the film. There are additional stories from Disney which add further context about these other worlds, but they are not strictly speaking canonical in terms of what Tim Burton created. Long Live The Pumpkin Queen, a sequel book by Shea Earnshaw, has the most extensive and detailed accounts exploring the other worlds, and they essentially build on the lore in a very predictable and simple manner with each world having a feel and look that evokes that specific holiday.
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In the world of Thanksgiving, the world is designed with fall colors, while there are hints of snow that provide a peak at the fast approaching winter season. It also includes turkeys, feasts on large wooden tables, and pilgrims gathering together to celebrate the holiday. After returning home and Santa restoring balance to the holidays, Jack begins to explore the other realms, getting familiar with the leaders in each town, and learning about what the other Holidays have to offer.
6 Independence Day
According to Long Live The Pumpkin Queen, Independence Day World pays tribute to the Fourth of July. The world is mostly dark, but it’s constantly lit up by a continuous barrage of fireworks that provide light. However, even in the novel which expands on the world of The Nightmare Before Christmas, this world is one of the least developed and almost no other details about it have been revealed. Apparently, all the townspeople live in glass-domed houses, which allow them to watch the fireworks above at all times.
Presumably, adding to the clever and creepy world developed by Tim Burton, these people may never have sleep, and so they could be eternally exhausted. The world could also be flowing with tea, as an homage to the Boston Tea Party, and presumably American flags to tie in with the exclusively US-based holiday. Considering how little Jack reveals about the world, it would make sense that it is not all that thrilling.
5 Easter
Contrarily, while Easter did not appear explicitly in the movie, there was a scene where a giant pink bunny is brought back to Jack by his nightmarish helpers. While trying to capture Santa, the naive monsters were clueless about which door to enter, and even more clueless about who Santa could be. This large pink bunny is clearly a resident of Easter, and it provides a minor glimpse at that world.
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However, once again, the most details about this holiday are revealed in the novel, Long Live The Pumpkin Queen. The grass is warm and crisp, with most of the residents being large bunnies. Instead of houses, the world is mainly inhabited by a large open meadow, with dozens of holes dug around the area where these bunnies run and sleep. In the middle of the grove, there is a large gazebo which houses a factory that constantly produces colorful painted eggs. It is likely that these bunnies will take the eggs to the real world and hide them all around in order for those celebrating to find them.
4 St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day is marked by a green shamrock door in the forest, and it leads to another magical realm. The only insight to the world comes from the novel, Long Live The Pumpkin Queen. The world is very green, with leprechauns as the main inhabitants. These creatures roam freely, and are constantly searching for gold around rainbows.
The world is also said to smell of mint and moss, with long winding roads that go in a variety of directions. The homes where the residents can be found are small, and made of leaves and twigs, and all of the men sport red beards, while the women have rosy red cheeks.
3 Valentine’s Day
While Valentine’s Day does not make an appearance in the film, with just the red love heart door to the world shown, this is one of the primary settings for the novel, Long Live The Pumpkin Queen. Jack had extensively researched and visited every holiday, except for Valentine’s Day, which he was saving to visit with his beloved Sally. After marrying Sally, Jack took her to the Holiday of love, and the pair celebrated their honeymoon there.
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The world is decorated with an abundance of hearts, sweet smells, flowing chocolate rivers and a love potion in the center of town. However, the world is also home to bleeding heart flowers that represent those who are alone on the holidays. The world is also populated with flying cupids as the primary residents, with the guardian of this world being Queen Ruby Valentino.
2 Real World
While these worlds all exist behind doors in the forest of each holiday, there also exists the human realm. The real world appears to be similar to reality, with most of the year not being associated with one specific holiday. Instead, the humans live out their lives, and as each season changes, and a new holiday approaches, they appear to welcome or hide from that day. This world can be accessed by magical means which appear to be solely given to the guardians of each world. For instance, Jack is able to open portals for the monsters to step into the real world through graves.
Presumably, the other guardians have their own means of accessing the real world, and they reserve that gift to use when their individual holidays arrive. Other than that, the world outside of holidays appears to be distinct and separate from the others. However, beyond the seven holiday doors that are seen in the film, Long Live The Pumpkin Queen suggests there are a few more worlds that are not seen in the film.
1 Other Worlds
Aside from the primary holiday doors, there are other doors which grant access to older holidays, and even festivals or mythical beings that are hidden further in the forest. Only a handful are mentioned, but presumably, there could be a world for every holiday ever made. However, one fascinating world that is laid out in Long Live The Pumpkin Queen is Dream Town.
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Dream Town was once ruled over by the Sandman, and it exists as a plane that influences the dreams of the humans. However, when the Sandman became too powerful and greedy, he was overthrown. The new rulers of Dream Town are two ragdolls. According to the novel, these ragdolls are actually Sally’s parents, and she finds her people in this town, but that is strictly according to the novel. Otherwise, The Nightmare Before Christmas only explicitly reveals that there are seven holiday worlds, and the real world.
Henry Selick directs The Nightmare Before Christmas, a stop-motion fairytale from the mind of Tim Burton. Jack Skellington is the king of Halloween and one of Halloweentown’s most beloved citizens, but he longs for something more. When he stumbles across a magical door that leads him to discover Christmas, he makes it his mission to replace Santa Claus and bring festive cheer to his perpetually spooky hamlet.
- Director
- Henry Selick
- Release Date
- October 29, 1993
- Studio(s)
- Touchstone Pictures , Skellington Productions
- Distributor(s)
- Buena Vista Distribution , Walt Disney Pictures
- Writers
- Caroline Thompson
- Cast
- Catherine O’Hara , Glenn Shadix , Ken Page , William Hickey , Chris Sarandon , Paul Reubens , Danny Elfman
- Runtime
- 76 minutes
- Budget
- $24 Million