Synopsis
Halloween Town is a dream world filled with dark creatures such as deformed monsters, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, vampires, werewolves and witches. The Pumpkin King, named Jack Skellington, leads them in a frightful celebration every Halloween, but he has grown tired of the same routine year after year. Wandering in the forest outside the town center with his ghost dog, Zero, he finds a cluster of trees each with a door which represents a certain annual holiday. Jack is drawn to the tree with the Christmas tree-shaped door and opens it which leads to a portal to "Christmas Town".
Impressed by the feeling and style of Christmas, Jack presents his findings of the holiday to the Halloween Town residents. They fail to grasp his meaning and compare everything he says to their idea of Halloween. Jack undertakes several experiments to try to understand Christmas logically, but he becomes frustrated when he fails to understand. However, he realizes that just because he can't understand Christmas does not mean he still can't enjoy it; so he announces to Halloween Town that this year they will take over Christmas.
Jack's obsession with Christmas leads him to usurp the role of Santa Claus, known to him as "Sandy Claws". Every resident is assigned a task, while Sally, a rag doll woman who was created by the town's mad scientist, has romantic feelings towards Jack. However, when she is alone, she has a premonition of Jack's Christmas ending in disaster. When she tells Jack that it would be a bad idea for him to take over Christmas, he misinterprets her anxiety to mean that she is worried when given the responsibility to make Jack's Santa costume.
Meanwhile, Jack assigns Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of mischievous children, to bring Santa to Halloween Town. When he arrives, Jack tells him of his plan that he will take over Christmas this year, much to Santa's protests. After this and against Jack's wishes, and largely for their amusement, the trio deliver Santa to Oogie Boogie, a gambling-addict bogeyman who plots to play a game with Santa's life at stake.
Christmas Eve arrives and Sally attempts to stop Jack with fog, but he embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer and guided by the glowing nose of his ghost dog, Zero. He begins to deliver presents to children around the world, but the gifts (shrunken heads, Christmas tree-eating snakes, etc.) only terrify the recipients. Jack is believed to be an impostor attempting to impersonate Santa.
The army is alerted, and, using searchlights to spot him, they try to shoot him down. The sleigh is shot down and Jack is presumed dead by Halloween Town's citizens, but in fact he has survived the crash, landing in a cemetery. Although he is depressed by the failure of his plan and the damage it caused, he quickly regains his old spirit by realising that he still tried his best at Christmas and enjoyed it. Having come up with new ideas for next Halloween and wanting to "set things right", he rushes back to Halloween Town.
Meanwhile, Sally attempts to free Santa, but fails and is also captured by Oogie. Jack slips into the Oogie's lair and frees both Santa and Sally. Jack then confronts Oogie and avoids his traps. While Oogie tries to escape, Jack uses a single loose thread hanging from Oogie's sewn rag structure to rip him open, exposing the bugs Oogie is made of. He falls apart, and with Oogie defeated, Santa reprimands Jack before setting off to deliver his presents to the children of the world. Jack asks Sally how she got into Oogie's lair in the first place and he realises that she was trying to help Jack because she has feelings for him.
When Jack and Sally return to Halloween Town, the citizens rejoice that Jack is alive and soon Santa is seen in the sky, making snow fall over Halloween Town to show that there are no hard feelings between himself and Jack. The townspeople are confused by the snow at first, but soon begin to play happily in it.
Jack follows Sally out into the graveyard after seeing the Doctor with his new creation. Jack and Sally begin to sing of their very strong romantic feelings for each other and then share a passionate kiss on top of the spiral hill in the graveyard. Zero watches them from afar before flying into the night sky forming a bright star shape and ending the show in an explosion of Winterval-themed fireworks.
((First show that isn't actually a show - have fun imagining how the Shanachie's done it!))
