The Nightmare Before Christmas, written and illustrated by Tim Burton, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

Amongst the many funny and sweet and classic Christmas-themed children’s books on offer this year, here is one that offers something thrillingly, even horrifyingly, different. It plays a mash-up between the worlds of Halloween and Christmas.  

First published almost thirty years ago but recently updated, The Nightmare Before Christmas is written and illustrated by Tim Burton, famous for his multi-award winning gothic horror and fantasy films. The rhyming text jogs along, swerving into a macabre version of The Night Before Christmas, and offering echoes of Dickens, enjoying itself as it tells a simple story of trying a different life but finding that the old one suited you better. 

Spider-like Jack Skellington is bored of non-stop terrorising in Halloweenland. So he magically slips into Christmasland, steals bits of Christmas then steals Santa himself because Jack is jealous of Santa being the one who brings joy. That ‘it’s not fair’ feeling that somebody else is having better fun than you are will resonate with many children! He tells Santa to, ‘lie in my coffin, creak doors and yell, ‘Boo!’ I’d have loved to see Santa attempting that, but we stay with Jack’s story, not Santa’s. 

Guess what? Jack, in his coffin sleigh with skeletal deer, brings only horror to the children awaiting presents. ‘A baby doll possessed by a demon’ and ‘a vampire teddy bear with very sharp teeth’ are amongst his offerings. The humans respond with ‘bullets and missiles intended to kill’. This is the part of the story Tim Burton enjoys and dwells on the most. Then the inevitable ending comes very suddenly, Santa telling Jack to stay in his own lane whilst he ‘brought Christmas to the land of Halloween’. ‘THE END’. We never get to know whether Santa puts things right for the children in the human world or not. Perhaps it’s more exciting to make up your own mind about that.   

For the right child at an age and stage where this will thrill enjoyably rather than terrify, and when it won’t destroy their image of kind Christmases and make them worry, this will be a daring and memorable book. But I won’t be sharing it with my four year old grandson just yet. Perhaps when he gets to seven or eight?