Who knew that we could take the dark dreary imagination of Tim Burton and make a true to form Christmas movie. He takes the basic plot of the story of films like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Grinch and brought them together and added a world of holidays and Halloween town to make one of the most amazing stop-motion animation musicals of all time.

We follow Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king, who’s the scariest scarer in all of Halloween Town. He’s finally tired of all the scaring and wants for something new to try his hand at. After walking about he wanders to these series of doors and stumbles into the land of Christmas. He’s fascinated by all things Christmas. He gets the crazy idea that he, and all his friends, should do Christmas this year. They immediately get to work and we can see that this is going to turn out horribly, but it’s a mess we can’t stop smiling while it goes on.

It’s one of the first movies I can remember going to the theatre to see with my grandmother. I have such fond memories of the movie and somehow I remember over the years revisiting it and no matter how many times I watch it I never get bored. I still drop my jaw as I hear Danny Elfman sing Jack’s Lament or when I hear Ken Page sing Oogie Boogie’s Song. I still laugh so hard it hurts when I Jack try to sell Christmas to the population of Halloween Town. The film never stops being touching and that’s a feat especially when you have jokes about decapitated heads and all.

So it’s the second day of Christmas and this film is my viewing recommendation, so check out the trailer below:

Quote of the Film:

Mayor: [cheerfully] How horrible our Christmas will be!
Jack Skellington: *No.*
[the Mayor switches to his unhappy face]
Jack Skellington: How *jolly*.
Mayor: Oh. How *jolly* our Christmas will be.