My favorite time of year is speeding our way, fall. The fall is where I find my favorite kind of magic. A kind of magic that is painted in the shades of autumn, reds, oranges, browns, and yellows. It’s also the first two of two seasons that my favorite movie takes place in.
October of 1993 was a pretty fantastic time in my life. I turned 10 years old, my mother took me to New York City for the first time. I got my first piece of “real” jewelry from my father, a handmade gold ring with an opal in it that he had made for me in Martha’s Vineyard (I’m wearing it now actually). Finally at the month’s end my father took me to see what would become my favorite movie ever made, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.
I’d never seen anything like it, I felt like my head had exploded and someone whispered in my little ear “You can do anything you want with your life.” Here was the stop motion proof of such an idea. I can do anything, look at that guy, he did. I saw the movie three times in theaters between my parents and siblings. I couldn’t get enough. I collected all four NMBC watches from Burger King and I’ve still got a couple and managed to find another complete set on eBay for regular wear.
I waited for a whole year for the movie to come out on VHS. Christmas 1994 rolled around with my stomach all a flutter. At my father’s house there, under the tree, was a VHS shaped present. I couldn’t wait, I could watch the movie at infinitum. When I was growing up I was allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve each year. My plan for days leading up to that night was to open the obviously Nightmare shaped package and stay up all night in my room watching the movie. Said plan in action? Thwarted. My father insisted that I was to open a different gift, a Nintendo 64. Totally awesome gift except that he set it up and proceeded to play it for four hours to “make sure it was working properly”.
Christmas morning I woke up, ran downstairs, opened one gift, and bolted to my room to watch the movie. The list of reasons that I love this movie is too long to get in to, however one of them is that I believe it’s one of the greatest love stories ever told. Jack and Sally inspire me, cheeseball alert! I’m a giant dork.
With that said, annually around this time of year a magical thing happens at the Happiest Place on Earth. The Haunted Mansion is transformed into Haunted Holiday based on the Nightmare Before Christmas. We are heading into my favorite time of year at Disneyland for this reason. I’ll be taking my camera along for the ride, which I’ve done in the past. I thought it’d be fun to share some of the previous journeys through Halloween Town here. So you’ll find photos from the ride and a nerdy shot of the two sides of my neck dedicated to my favorite scene in the movie - where Jack seeks out Sally to tell her that he’s in love with her. There’s also a shot or two from some of the nerdy Nightmare things I’ve done over the years.
Happy fall coming kids!
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