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Christmas Countdown: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

The Nightmare Before Christmas is about Jack, the creative genius behind Hallowe'en who feels that his efforts with that Holiday have grown stale.

Distraught, Jack sets out for an evening walk in the woods to be alone with his thoughts. By dawn, he's walked farther away from his town than any of the residents have ever been, where he finds a portal to the North Pole. At the pole, he is enthralled by the Christmas cheer and how different it is there from where he lives. He brings back the news of Christmas to his townfolk, but they don't quite get it.

Many people find the Christmas season to be a cloying affair, and take strides to avoid the state-enforced cheer and "five golden rings" nonsense. The Hallowe'en townspeople are like this.

Fair enough.

But there's more to Christmas than the saccharine merrymaking and joyous jubilation. Christmas is a celebration of community and our common threads which form the mesh that is humanity.

TNBC is a successful Christmas film because it taps genuinely into this sentiment. With gorgeous animation and some of the best Christmas songs I've heard, the film is a real treat to watch.

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