What a splendid idea! This Christmas sounds like fun. I fully endorse it.

My third offering of a a movie for the holiday season is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.  It's a delightful tale of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, a skeleton character dressed in a black pin striped suit.  His love interest is Sally, a rag doll who frequently falls apart and must sow herself back together. Her creator is Dr. Finkelstein, a mad scientist with a hinged skull that can open to reveal his brain.

Yeah, your saying (unless you've seen the movie) so what does this all have to do with Christmas?  Well Jack and the other characters of Halloween Town decide to invade Christmas Town, kidnap Santa Claus  and make Christmas their own. Jack drives Santa's sleigh with his dog Zero, whose nose glows, leading the reindeer. Shades of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer! Of course, the grass is always greener in someone else's holiday as Jack soon learns.

Danny Elfman did the music score; of course Elfman's music credits include myriad of movies and TV shows, including Edward Scissorhands, Charlie Brown and the Chocolate Factory, American Hustle and Frankenweenie.

The concept for Nightmare came to Burton while still working for Walt Disney Animation Studios. Here is the poem on YouTube.

So, Happy Halloween, er, Merry Christmas, I mean.

Ron D. Voigts is the author of dark mysteries and the Penelope Mystery Series.  His novel Strigoi, The Blood Bond is available on Kindle, and for the holidays check out Penelope and The Christmas Spirit.