Fandom in Context: ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Fandom Spreads Cheer And Fear All Year Round

Since 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas has benefited from a loyal and fervent fanbase. The film’s unique animation style, distinctive design and festive earworms codified the Tim Burton aesthetic better than any other movie, making it all the stranger that Burton-himself didn’t direct the picture; Henry Selick did. Despite the director’s lack of credited authorship on the final film, the movie was a merchandising bonanza for Disney, who slapped Jack Skellington’s face on every piece of merchandise that Hot Topic would allow. Gloves, hoodies and action figures filled goth kids’ closets throughout the 2000s, leaving an imprint on the culture that still hasn’t subsided.

The Nightmare Before Christmas wasn’t a huge box office success. It found its audience on home video. Thanks to yearly viewings between Halloween and Christmas, the movie attracted a following eager to gobble up merchandise like Oogie Boogie gobbles up bugs. Over time, Disney, who originally released the film under the Touchstone imprint, could not deny that fanbase and the film found its place between Gremlins and Die Hard as the Christmas movie for people who hate Christmas movies.

Today, Nightmare Before Christmas is holiday canon, easily found on Disney+, Christmas tree ornaments and ugly holiday sweaters. But as the merchandise craze subsided, the film maintained a core group of acolytes who continued to obsess over the lanky bodies, pointy noses and iconic music from the film. Throughout the 2010s, fans online assembled at the altar of the Pumpkin King on Tumblr, Discord and DeviantArt, sharing cosplay, makeup tutorials, and fan art that dives deeper into the lives of the film’s stop-motion stars.

Considering the decade-long gestation period for The Nightmare Before Christmas and its grueling two-year production, it seems appropriate that the film would have such a long tail. It is the first feature-length stop-motion animated picture, after all. The film’s uncommon sensibilities were in such stark juxtaposition to the rest of the Disney canon that it’s also no surprise that oddballs around the world would gravitate towards it.

The rise of social media, however, changed the nature of this fandom. Instead of expressing their love for the film exclusively through t-shirts and fingerless gloves, Nightmare fans found their way to the arts. Since the mid-00s, fandom communities devoted to the film grew on DeviantArt, messageboards and fansites.

In 2004, the fan page “Pumpkin Patch” launched just in time for the film’s 2006 3-D re-release. The site is a relic of the old web, which gives a certain charm in the modern climate of Fandom wikis and subreddits. Pumpkin Patch still offers fans the flash-based experience of yesteryear. The lack of updates hasn’t hurt the site, which still provides newer fans with a starting place for the fandom. It still holds the basics any burgeoning fan could ask for, such as movie scripts, song lyrics, info on the Nightmare video games, including Kingdom Hearts, which undoubtedly had an impact on the film’s long-running cultural standing.

Fansites don’t operate the same way anymore. Regulated to social media platforms, Nightmare Before Christmas fans found their way to DeviantArt and Tumblr, the de facto goth kid social networks. Sorry, LiveJournal.

You can feel Pumpkin Patch’s influence on the TNBC Club, a Tumblr and Discord server that provides fans the opportunity to share holiday cheer and Halloween fears with each other. The page is a trove of Nightmare goodies, such as fan-art, fiction, animation and more. The TNBC Discord server is an extension of the Tumblr page, another place for fans to share their work and gush about the movie. TBNC server admin UshiMooshi ended up on the server after gaining some traction on Tumblr from some old Sally-inspired artwork. in 2018

“Back in 2018, I had really started to invest a lot of my time in digital art. I thought back on things I hadn’t drawn since I was a child, Jack and Sally being one of them,” UshiMooshi said on Discord. “I drew some sketches and posted them online, not realizing the impact it would have.”

“Drawing art for TNBC had opened a new gateway for me, and with it I realized not only did people enjoy my work, but I really enjoyed it myself. If I remember correctly, it was my Sally drawings that gave me notoriety in the fandom. From then on, I wanted to create things I knew both I and the people around me wanted to see.”

To UshiMooshi, drawing Halloweentown’s residents allowed her to grow as an artist while also supplying the TNBC community with much-needed fan art. She says that makeup and cosplay tend to take precedent in the fandom because “there’s a universal appeal to those things, as everyone has the ability to follow a makeup tutorial to recreate their favorite characters’ looks. That’s not to downplay the effort it takes, however, as some of these cosplayers and makeup artists have years of experience under their belts.”

One of those fans is Urei, a Jack Skellington cosplayer from Japan. Over the last decade, she has amassed a healthy following through her creative re-staging of the film’s most iconic moments. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a lifelong obsession for her.

“I was 3 years old, when it came out. I absolutely fell in love with it but I remember I was scared of the last moment of Boogie.” Urei said via email. “The Nightmare Before Christmas inspired me in so many ways. I must say Tim Burton’s drawings inspired my makeup and costumes.”

She began cosplaying more than a decade ago, falling in love with the community after attending a Tokyo anime convention. It was a life-changing trip. Like Jack falling headfirst into the Christmastown snow, Urei got her first taste of another world. “It was such a magical experience. I loved seeing all the cosplayers there.” Her trip didn’t end with a shrunken head in a box for little Timmy, though. It ended with a giant bat bow-tie and a selfie with Tim Burton.

“For over 25 years I’ve been a big fan of them,” Urei recalls. “I was trying my best to stay calm but totally lost my mind and was in tears. They did comment on my work, but to be honest I can’t remember what it was. I was way excited and kind of panicking. However, Tim Burton asked for a selfie with him so I hope he did like my Jack cosplay.”

For these fans, the love of Jack, Sally and Oogie Boogie is a year-round affair. For the rest of the world, not so much. Henry Selick’s film’s seasonal pleasures spend a good third of the year on TV screens, but for the fandom, they must rely on their creativity to keep the community active.

“The holidays definitely give Nightmare a sort of ‘limited time’ aspect that the general public seems to eat up,” said UshiMooshi. “There’s something special about something you feel you can only watch at a certain time of year, right? I’d still say it only gets largely popular again around the holiday season, then fizzles out into a cult following until next Halloween. This is a common trend I’ve noticed year after year.”

“The people who take their interest in the franchise to the next level love to do all sorts of things to express their enjoyment. Whether it be art, music, fan fiction, cosplay, or anything else they can think of.”

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a movie about being true to yourself and owning what you’re good at. In the end, the film has helped a generation of fans do the same. Whether it be cosplaying, roleplaying or makeup design, thanks to Nightmare, fans from around the world have found a place to celebrate in their way, whether they’re saying Happy Halloween or Merry Christmas.