\n\t\t<\/aside>\nYears passed until one bored winter break five years ago, when I revisited this childhood favorite and suddenly found myself reviving the tradition of watching the movie every December. I love this movie to death and can talk about it forever, but I have a single rule: I only watch it in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s admittedly a little weird that I can\u2019t bring myself to watch it outside that month. Partially, it\u2019s because I believe \u201cNightmare\u201d is a Christmas movie and, like most holiday movies, the urge to watch it arrives in full force once the tinsel goes up. With jubilant songs like \u201cWhat\u2019s This?\u201d \u2014 Jack\u2019s jolly introduction to Christmas Town \u2014 and even the spooky Halloween Town introduction of \u201cThis is Halloween,\u201d the movie makes the holidays even more merry for me.<\/p>\n
Until my most recent rewatch, I largely overlooked \u201cJack\u2019s Lament\u201d in light of the two aforementioned songs. This is Jack\u2019s slow, sorrowful reflection on the years he has spent as the Pumpkin King as he yearns for something different. Singing of an \u201cemptiness\u201d and how no one \u201cwould ever understand,\u201d Jack has lost not just a sense of purpose in his life, but also the wonder and magic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once many years ago, he enjoyed the title and the terrifying legacy that preceded him. But seeing as the Mayor (Glen Shadix, \u201cThe Little Engine That Could\u201d) is already knocking on Jack\u2019s door on Nov. 1 to plan for next year, the annual Halloween celebration is the only thing Jack is supposed to focus on. Not only is this unfulfilling for Jack, but his despair also becomes deeper upon understanding that Halloween is all there is; he even bemoans, \u201cYet year after year, it\u2019s the same routine \/ And I grow so weary of the sound of screams.\u201d It\u2019s an endless cycle of repeating the same tradition, which wears down Jack until there\u2019s nothing joyful left.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Similar to Jack and his feelings surrounding Halloween, I eventually become tired of doing the same thing repeatedly. I move between book genres, I switch up songs and I rotate recipes constantly. I still love the things I know inside out and hold them close to my heart, offering myself a comforting escape when bad days happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nBut at my worst, I\u2019m burnt out by the very things I once loved to do. The initial passion and excitement that spurred me to continue doing these things seemingly forever turned into my own monotonous emptiness \u2014 a feeling that I never want to experience with \u201cNightmare.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My fingers skip a Laufey song after listening to it non-stop for two months. My eyes wander from the screen after my thousandth rewatch of \u201cThe Good Place.\u201d My stomach physically hurts after a week of eating parmesan orzo for dinner (but maybe it\u2019s the cheese and not my own obsession with it).\u00a0<\/p>\n
I cannot repeat anything endlessly<\/em> \u2014 the question \u201cIf you had to eat\/drink\/read\/listen to only one<\/em> thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?\u201d is tough to answer because no matter what I choose, I will go insane after a few months. But this doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t love Laufey, \u201cThe Good Place\u201d and cheesy orzo. I love them and I know this because I always return to them eventually.\u00a0<\/p>\nPerhaps it\u2019s this idea that keeps me watching \u201cNightmare\u201d every December. It may be a silly tradition of mine with a dramatic rule, but it keeps the movie\u2019s magic alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sense of childhood awe I had when I first watched \u201cNightmare\u201d is one that\u2019s been more difficult to recreate with new things I discover as an adult. A lot can happen between January and November, which sometimes means forgetting about childhood favorites like \u201cNightmare.\u201d But as snow falls in December and festive lights are strung up, my excitement for the movie begins to build again. I\u2019m singing songs from the soundtrack and walking around in my themed Vans as I pass winter-themed storefronts in town. Once I choose my night to do my yearly tradition, the anticipation builds even more as I eagerly wait to watch the movie.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nAnd on that night, I\u2019ll settle on my couch and wrap a cozy blanket around myself. Armed with a plate of cookies and a warm drink, I\u2019ll press play on \u201cNightmare\u201d and revive a little Christmas magic.<\/p>\n
I may not be able to watch \u201cNightmare\u201d for every second, but it\u2019s something I can have on repeat forever for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n
Daily Arts Writer Eilene Koo can be reached at <\/em>ekoo@umich.edu<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n
Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Very little media from my childhood lingers in my mind as vividly as \u201cThe Nightmare Before Christmas.\u201d I\u2019ve watched it enough times to know the words to every song on the soundtrack by heart. I would kill at \u201cNightmare\u201d trivia night if it was offered in my area. I\u2019m a proud owner of a pair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2185,2187,2186],"class_list":{"0":"post-1952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-christmas","9":"tag-nightmare","10":"tag-rewatch"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1954,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions\/1954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}