Just imagine: It’s raining outside, you’re seated next to the crackling fireplace, you’re surrounded by friends, and you have your blanket, popcorn, munchies, and hot cocoa at hand. And finally, it’s time to choose a movie. After much arguing, The Nightmare Before Christmas just barely wins the honor of being tonight’s entertainment.

But an outcry from afar! What are these shrieks of horror and pain? It is none other than those who didn’t want to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas! What’s their claim you ask? “The Nightmare Before Christmas is not a Christmas movie!”

Then why is the word Christmas in the title then?!

The room spirals to complete chaos and by the end of it: two people leave the room on a stretcher, two people are in the back of a cop car, and one person is a convi– oh wait, it doesn’t go that far? Hm, weird.

Anyways this debate has gone on for as long as the movie has existed. This debate is in a Goldilocks zone when it comes to how controversial it is. It’s more controversial than the The Dress (I’m on team black and blue) but is less controversial than the pronunciation of GIF (team “jif” here).

To put it simply: it is a Halloween movie! I know, I can hear the audible gasp through the screen! Just kidding, that would be absolutely terrifying. Also, most of you probably didn’t react at all!

But, it’s true! The director of the movie, Henry Selick, stated that “It’s a Halloween movie” when asked by Cosmopolitan.

In an interview with USA Today, Danny Elfman, the Grammy-winning composer behind the movie’s soundtrack, revealed that “It’s obviously about Christmas, but for me, it’s a Halloween movie,” he said. 

He also commented, “I felt very close to Jack Skellington’s plight because I knew what it was like to be the king of my own little world, and to want out of that world and want something else,” Elfman went on to say. “So I felt very close to the holiday of Halloween, but also very close to Jack and what he was going through.”

It’s also worth noting that The Nightmare Before Christmas was released just two days before Halloween in 1993, indicating that the creators really did see it as more of a Halloween movie than a Christmas one. 

So that settles it. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween movie. 

But for all of you wanting to watch it during the holiday season, go ahead! With all of it’s Christmas-y elements, it’s also totally appropriate to watch in December, too! 

Knowing this, you can flex on everyone that thinks it’s a Christmas movie. Why? Because the very people that created the movie had the intentions of it being centered around Halloween.