20 Things You Might Not Have Known About ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’

Christmas is a time for donning festive garb, singing holiday songs, festooning your home in decorations, and giving thoughtful gifts. Of course, all those tasks turn out a bit more twisted when assigned to the denizens of Halloween Town. The Nightmare Before Christmas, which arrived in theaters in 1993, mixes light and dark with jolly and macabre with great success. Even if this Halloween/Christmas movie mash-up movie is part of your regular holiday tradition, we’d roll Oogie Boogie’s dice that you don’t know all of these secrets from behind the scenes.

1. Tim Burton did not direct The Nightmare Before Christmas.
2. The plot was inspired by the recurring collision of holiday store decorations.
3. A Tim Burton poem predated The Nightmore Before Christmas.
4. Rankin/Bass was one of the inspirations for the stop-motion approach.
5. Burton originally imagined The Nightmare Before Christmas as a television special.
6. Ronald Searle and Edward Gorey were also influential.
7. Vincent Price was nearly Nightmare’s Santa.
8. Selick is responsible for Jack’s signature suit.
9. Disney fought for Jack to have eyes.
10. Patrick Steward was cut from the film.
11. The set was built with a secret passage for animators.
12. Burton called on collaborators—past and present—for the film.
13. Shooting began before the script was completed.
14. The most difficult shot was opening a door.
15. Tim Burton was supposed to have a cameo.
16. There are some hidden Mickeys.
17. There’s a hidden Ed Wood reference.
18. Deleted scenes included Behemoth’s solo and an alternate Oogie Boogie reveal.
19. Burton rejected a CGI sequel.
20. Jack Skellington resurfaced in Selick’s later films.

Tim Burton did not direct The Nightmare Before Christmas.

This is a common misconception spurred by the film’s alternate title: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Burton was busy with Batman Returns and handed this hefty responsibility to his old Disney Animation colleague Henry Selick, who made his feature directorial debut with the film. Burton’s name goes above the title for serving as producer, creating the story, and coming up with the look and the characters for The Nightmare Before Christmas. It probably didn’t help that his name was much bigger than Selick’s at the time, thanks to the success of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Batman.

The plot was inspired by the recurring collision of holiday store decorations.

In the film’s DVD commentary, Burton explained that his childhood in ever-sunny Burbank, California, was not marked by seasonal changes, so holiday decorations were an especially important factor in the year’s progression. When it came to fall and winter, there was a melding of Halloween and Christmas in stores eager to make the most of both shopping seasons. This, he claimed, planted the seed for his tale of the king of Halloween intruding on Christmas.

A Tim Burton poem predated The Nightmore Before Christmas.

While Burton was working as an animator at Disney on productions like The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron, he began toying with cartoon projects of his own. This eventually led to animated shorts like “Vincent,” as well as the penning of a poem called “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” A sort of parody of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (also known as “The Night Before Christmas”), this poem focused on Jack Skellington’s inescapable ennui and featured his ghost dog Zero as well as Santa.

Rankin/Bass was one of the inspirations for the stop-motion approach.

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Visual Companion details how the work of Ray Harryhausen influenced the animation style of the movie. “Jason and the Argonauts was one of the first cinematic experiences I ever remember as a child,” Burton said in the book. “When you have a certain time in a certain moment, it’s just like a perfect storm. It stays with you.” Burton also found inspiration in Rankin/Bass Christmas specials like 1964’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. “Those Christmas specials had a huge impact on me growing up,” he said. “I was of that generation where we watched them every year.”

Burton originally imagined The Nightmare Before Christmas as a television special.

And like Rankin/Bass’s Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer or Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, Burton envisioned his take on Christmas could play well on television annually. This turned out to be true, but in a way he had not expected. He initially pitched the animated effort to TV studios. When that failed, he tried book publishers. No one bit until he pitched it as a full-length feature film. On the commentary track, Burton estimates that roughly 20 years passed between the project’s earliest inception and its theatrical debut on October 29, 1993.

Ronald Searle and Edward Gorey were also influential.

In a behind-the-scenes video about The Nightmare Before Christmas’s backbreaking creation, a narrator noted that the production design team took a page from the pen and ink drawings of these two memorable artists, aiming to create in the physical set designs the kinds of cross-hatching and textures found within their works. Selick explained that they’d smear sets in plaster or clay, then scratch lines into this material “to give it that sort of etched texture or feel to make it look like a living illustration.”

Vincent Price was nearly Nightmare’s Santa.

Burton had previously worked with the renowned horror icon on Edward Scissorhands and “Vincent.” From there, Price had agreed to give voice to the plump and flustered Santa who is kidnapped by treacherous trick ’r treaters Lock, Shock, and Barrel. However, this plan was derailed when Price’s wife Coral Browne passed in 1991. Selick explained in the commentary track that the actor was so grief-stricken that the director felt he sounded too sad for Santa. Edward Ivory was then brought in to replace him.

Selick is responsible for Jack’s signature suit.

In Burton’s original sketches, Jack was dressed all in black. It’s revealed in the film’s commentary track that it was Selick who gave Jack a marvelous makeover that added white stripes to his slim-fit suit. It was more than a smart sartorial choice, though—the addition of the pinstripes was needed to help Jack pop. In early camera tests, it became a major concern when Jack’s flat black suit blended in to the dark backdrops of Halloween Town.

Disney fought for Jack to have eyes.

Because of the dark and deeply weird nature of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Walt Disney Studios decided it was too off-brand to be released under their banner—so the film was made through their branch Touchstone Pictures. But this didn’t keep Disney from dropping some serious studio notes, including the insistence that Jack Skellington’s empty sockets be filled with a pair of friendly eyes. A common guideline in animation and puppet-creation is that eyes are crucial to having an audience connect to a character, but Selick and Burton wouldn’t budge, and ultimately proved their anti-hero didn’t need oculars to connect.

Patrick Steward was cut from the film.

Early on, The Nightmare Before Christmas planned to rely heavily on its poetic inspiration. As such, Star Trek: The Next Generation star Patrick Stewart was called in to read poetry that was intended for the film’s opening and closing narration. The lengthy monologues were eventually pared down to a few lines, and those were reassigned to the film’s Santa, Edward Ivory. However, Stewart’s version can be found in full on the film’s soundtrack.

The set was built with a secret passage for animators.

The animators behind and beneath The Nightmare Before Christmas had special trapdoors cut into the 19 sound stages worth of 230 model sets so they could more easily reach in and manipulate their peculiar puppets. From these vantage points, they can move the armatures hidden within the creatures or swap their faces out for one of hundreds made to allow for a wide range of emotion. Jack Skellington alone had more than 400 heads.

Burton called on collaborators—past and present—for the film.

The former Oingo Boingo front man Danny Elfman began collaborating with Burton back in the early 1980s when he composed the score for Burton’s feature directorial debut, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. The pair re-teamed for Beetlejuice, Batman and Edward Scissorhands before Elfman was called to write the music and lyrics for The Nightmare Before Christmas. He also lent his singing voice to Jack Skellington, made a cameo as the redheaded corpse tucked away in the upright bass of the ghastly Halloween Town band, and lent his pipes to mischievous Barrel as well as the menacing clown with the tear-away face. Filling out the trio of trick ’r treaters was Pee-Wee's Big Adventure star Paul Reubens as Lock and Beetlejuice’s Catherine O'Hara as Shock. O’Hara also voiced the stitched up and besotted Sally, while her former co-star Glenn Shadix played the two-faced mayor of Halloween Town.

Shooting began before the script was completed.

Stop-motion demands a great deal of time, so when Danny Elfman had mastered most of the film’s songs, Selick plus a team of 13 specially trained animators and an army of prop makers, set builders, and camera operators got to work without a final screenplay. Animators began by crafting Jack’s big moment of discovery with “What’s This?” Shooting 24 frames per second meant the animators had to create unique motions for 110,000 frames total. One minute of the movie took about a week to shoot, and The Nightmare Before Christmas took three years to complete.

The most difficult shot was opening a door.

Because of the filmmakers’ dedication to be as true to shooting like live-action as possible, one Nightmare Before Christmas shot proved especially challenging. When Jack discovers the part of the forest with pathways to other holiday worlds, he looks longingly at the Christmas tree door. A close-up of its shiny golden knob reflects this mournful skeleton as well as the trees behind him as he advances to open it. Getting the reflection just right took a great deal of time, care, and attention.

Tim Burton was supposed to have a cameo.

Unearthed in cut footage is an alternate version of the vampires playing hockey. In the theatrical and all subsequent releases, the ice-skating vampires swat a jack-’o-lantern. However, the original version of this scene had them batting about a recognizable decapitated head. With its ghostly pallor, black spiky hair, angular shape, and deep bags under its eyes, the creepy creation is clearly Burton. But this seems to have been deemed too grisly for a kids’ movie.

There are some hidden Mickeys.

Since the film became a success, Disney has become less shy about their association with The Nightmare Before Christmas. But the commentary track reveals that, despite their reluctance, Disney allowed Selick and Burton to include a hidden Mickey in the form of a menacing toy. In the scene where Jack’s Christmas gifts attack, there’s a flying stuffed animal with a sharp-toothed grin that’s meant to be the Burton version of Mickey Mouse. Also, the girl it attacks is wearing a Mickey print nightgown, while her brother’s pajamas are covered in Donald Duck faces.

There’s a hidden Ed Wood reference.

While The Nightmare Before Christmas was in production, Burton not only completed Batman Returns but also dug into pre-production on Ed Wood, a biopic about the notoriously untalented filmmaker. A nod to Wood’s works is found tucked into the fearsome folk of Halloween Town: The burly, bald Behemoth is a sweet-natured brute who bears a striking resemblance—down to the scars on his face—to Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson as seen in Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Deleted scenes included Behemoth’s solo and an alternate Oogie Boogie reveal.

On the DVD, storyboard presentations revealed deleted scenes that never made it to production. One of these has Behemoth belting beautifully about “pretty” presents during “Making Christmas.” Another shows an abandoned concept of Oogie Boogie boogeying with the bugs that fill his stitched up form, and a third clip displays a very different finale: Instead of Boogie being torn up and reduced to bugs, he’s unmasked to be evil scientist Dr. Finkelstein in disguise. In this version, his whole scheme was revenge-fueled because Sally loved Jack, even though Finkelstein made her to be his mate.

Burton rejected a CGI sequel.

Though Disney has found success pumping out straight-to-DVD sequels of their animated hits, Burton has no interest in making The Nightmare Before Christmas 2. He told MTV, “I was always very protective of [Nightmare Before Christmas], not to do sequels or things of that kind. You know, ‘Jack visits Thanksgiving world’ or other kinds of things, just because I felt the movie had a purity to it and the people that like it. Because it’s not a mass-market kind of thing, it was important to kind of keep that purity of it. I try to respect people and keep the purity of the project as much as possible.”

Jack Skellington resurfaced in Selick’s later films.

Selick’s next movie, a stop-motion/live-action adaptation of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, came out in 1996. It featured the resurrection of The Nightmare Before Christmas’s bare bones protagonist, who appears in one spooky scene as a skeletal pirate captain. He’s much harder to spot in Selick’s 2009 adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, but if you look closely as the Other Mother makes breakfast, you’ll see Jack’s smiling skull hidden in the yolk of a cracked egg.

Discover More Fun Facts About Movies:

A version of this story ran in 2014; it has been updated for 2024.