Halloween Town is a fantasy world populated by various monsters and beings associated with the holiday. Jack Skellington, respected by the citizens as the "Pumpkin King", leads them in organizing the annual Halloween celebrations. However, this year, Jack has grown tired of the same annual routine and wants something new. Wandering in the woods the next morning, he encounters six trees containing doors leading to other holiday-themed worlds and stumbles into the one leading to Christmas Town. Awed by the unfamiliar holiday, Jack returns home to show his friends and neighbors his findings, but unaware of the idea of Christmas, they compare everything to their ideas of Halloween. However, they do relate to one Christmas Town character: its ruler, Santa Claus, or "Sandy Claws" as Jack mistakenly calls him. Jack sequesters himself in his house to study Christmas further and find a way to rationally explain it. After studying and experimentation accomplish nothing, Jack ultimately decides that Christmas should be improved rather than understood and announces that Halloween Town will take over Christmas this year. Jack assigns the residents many Christmas-themed jobs, including singing carols, making presents, and building a sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer. Sally, the feminine creation of local mad scientist Doctor Finklestein who secretly loves Jack, experiences a vision detailing that their efforts will end disastrously, but Jack dismisses this and assigns her the task of making him a Santa Claus suit. He also tasks mischievous trick-or-treating trio Lock, Shock and Barrel to abduct Santa and bring him to Halloween Town. Jack tells Santa he will be handling Christmas in his place this year and orders the trio to keep Santa safe, but against his wishes, they instead deliver Santa to Jack's long-time rival, Oogie Boogie, a bogeyman who has a passion for gambling and plots to play a game with Santa's life at stake. Sally attempts to rescue Santa to save both him and Jack from their potential fates, but she is captured as well. Jack departs to deliver his presents in the real world, but they instead frighten the populace, who contact the authorities and are instructed by them to lock down their homes and residences for protection. When word spreads about Jack's presumed wrongdoings, he is ultimately shot down by military forces, causing him to crash in a cemetery. While all of Halloween Town sadly believe him to be dead, Jack actually survived. As he bemoans the disaster he has caused, he finds he enjoyed the experience nonetheless, reigniting his love of Halloween, but soon realizes he must act fast to fix his mess. Jack returns home and infiltrates Oogie's lair, rescuing Santa and Sally before confronting Oogie and defeating him by unraveling a thread holding his cloth form together, causing all the bugs inside him to spill out and reduce him to nothing. Jack apologizes to Santa for his actions, to which he, despite being furious at Jack for the trouble he caused and ignoring Sally's forewarnings, assures him that he can still save Christmas. As Santa replaces Jack's presents with genuine ones, all of Halloween Town celebrates Jack's survival and return. Santa then shows Jack that there are no hard feelings between them by bringing a snowfall to the town, which fulfills Jack's original dream in a way and causes the residents to finally realize the true meaning of Christmas. Afterwards, Jack and Sally declare their love for each other.