The Nightmare before Christmas, a play

The basic story of The Nightmare before Christmas is there once was a halloween character who had heard of Christmas and other holidays, and he wanted to be as popular as the much loved Santa Claus. This was all in the distant and raucous time in the past when people had heard of various holidays but couldn't really distinguish between them or between the characters that played a prominent part during them. So, Mr. Halloween (for lack of a known name) came up with a grand plan to kidnap Santa Claus and then he himself would deliver presents to all the little kids and make them feel joy.

All of Mr. Halloween's friends celebrated such a lively and lovely idea! And they all wanted to play a part in helping Mr. Halloween steal Christmas and make Christmas more to Mr. Halloween's tastes. And let's just say that many of Mr. Halloween's friends were macabre, conniving, and deceitful ... They were not evil per se but they were definitely joyous in their somewhat unsavory ways.

But even in Halloween land, there is love ... and Miss Orange-hair, quiet and shy and demure, really loved Mr. Halloween and would happily do anything for him ... as long as it wasn't too dishonest.

The three most unethical characters were causing problems to Mr. Halloween's plans, such nasty characters that would deceived even each other. So Mr. Halloween decided to recruit their wicked selves and employ their energy in kidnapping Santa Claus. Oh, the wicked unethical trio were delighted ... and came up with some rather unsavory methods for the kidnapping.

Unfortunately, as holiday characters at that time didn't really know each other and therefore were confused about which holiday characters were important on which days, the unsavory trio kidnapped not Santa Claus ... but the Easter Bunny!

This of course was unacceptable to Mr. Halloween and he ordered them to take the Easter Bunny back and release him. They were given a second chance though of kidnapping Santa, who would be easy to spot as he would be wearing a big red suit to cover his big fat belly. The unsavory trio departed ...

Once Santa Claus was properly captured and trussed up like a sack of beans, Mr. Halloween donned Santa Claus's suit and ...

his Halloween minions danced raucously with joy and celebration at the turn of events and what they were sure was to be Mr. Halloween's success at being Santa Claus.

Unfortunately, Mr. Halloween was not so successful. He had trouble flying his sleigh, which was pulled by a little squirrelly dog with a glowing nose. He had trouble with chimneys. And worst of all, he had trouble with the children ... HE TERRIFIED THEM with his unpleasant halloween aspect covered by the sheep's clothing, the Santa Claus suit.

He regretfully decided that he had made a mistake, that his great efforts weren't panning out well.

The play closed with a triumphant ending. Mr. Halloween realized that he could only be appreciated on Halloween, and Santa Claus was too much loved at Christmas for there ever to be a substitute. And through this whole fiasco of kidnapping and concealment, the holiday characters got to know one another ... and respect one another ... and so from that time on, the holiday characters realized that on certain days they would be most visible and loved, but on other holidays it was the turn for other holiday characters to be loved and appreciated.

And like many a good tale, The Nightmare before Christmas had another happy ending. Mr. Halloween realized that he loved Miss Orange-hair like she loved him, and they are living a happy ever ending even now.

And so the Halloween characters celebrated both happy endings with wild, untrained, liberating dancing! And their dancing was not limited to the stage ... but wildly through the whole auditorium, up and down the aisles, and even grabbing audience members to rejoice with them in their grand discovery of many holiday characters who would be celebrated on the many different holidays.