The Nightmare Before Christmas

We’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” for Halloween 2023. I created all of these from scratch – mostly carved from foam wall insulation. I premiered a version of this in 2020 but have since added a number of new characters (10 total) and pieces (14+ total) for this first install at our new house. It’s on display through Halloween on the 2900 block of Wilson Ave. in Chicago.

Check out the installed display and work-in-progress pictures below.

Some fun facts:
Jack Skellington stands 11ft tall and his body is PVC and carved wooden joints 🎃 Sally’s hair is 728 yards of yarn and her eyelashes are pipe cleaners 🎃 I embedded a solar panel in the back of Zero’s head to light his nose (originally a candy dispenser top) 🎃 I carved Lock, Shock and Barrel’s heads each from a single piece of foam (Shock’s was my biggest challenge) and Barrel’s green yarn hair took ~8 hours to make 🎃 Santa’s body is made of all of the scraps from carving everything else 🎃 Dr. Finkelstein is in the attic window and lit using rear projection (although some neighbor kids were convinced he was a hologram) 🎃 Oogie Boogie’s lair is a 10×7 felt-covered, black light lit “room” in the corner of our living room 🎃 The entire display took over 200 hours to create and is one of 3 Halloween displays I’ve made 🎃 When not in use, we store the display in our basement along with 13 zombies and a giant grim reaper

Jack Skellington

Sally

Zero

Oogie Boogie

Black Cat

Sign, gravestones, bats

Lock, Shock and Barrel (& their wall)

Dr. Finkelstein