12 Most Memorable Christmas Songs From The Movies

This 1993 animated classic from director Henry Selick and producer Tim Burton has a pretty chequered history. Conceived by Burton in the early 1980s when he was an animator at Disney, it took his directorial success with Batman to give him the clout to get it into production.

The Nightmare Before Christmas broke new ground, as the first feature length film realised entirely via stop-motion animation. It was also mildly controversial on release; no Disney animated feature before it had been given a PG rating, and the studio opted to release it via their more adult-oriented Touchstone Pictures banner, fearing it was too scary for their kid-friendly brand.

How times have changed. 24 years on, the tale of disillusioned Halloween king Jack Skellington and his mad dream to take over Christmas is an annual favourite of young and old alike, which plays just as well at Halloween as it does at Christmas; and Jack and Sally merchandise proudly stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Mickey and co. in every Disney Store.

And when it comes to conveying the wide-eyed excitement that comes with the holiday season, no song conveys this better than What's This? As both songwriter and vocalist, Danny Elfman nails that sense of seasonal joy in a way few others have managed.

But of course, as with all the songs in The Nightmare Before Christmas, there's that beautifully macabre sense of humour that keeps things from getting too sappy: "There's children throwing snowballs, instead of throwing heads! They're busy building toys, and absolutely no-one's dead!"