The Sandman (The Nightmare Before Christmas)

Evil-doer
Full Name	The Sandman
Alias	King of Dream Town (formerly)
Origin	The Nightmare Before Christmas: Long Live the Pumpkin Queen
Occupation	Former ruler of Dream Town
Powers / Skills	Sleep inducement Levitation
Goals	Steal all the dreams he can
Crimes	Terrorism
Type of Villain	Fantastical Thief

The Sandman is the main antagonist of the 2022 young-adult novel Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, a sequel to the 1993 stop-motion animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas written by Stephan Ernshaw. The Sandman was the former ruler of Dream Town, an ancient location lost to time and where Sally was a native of.

Biography

Prior

The Sandman was the former ruler of Dream Town who was a cruel madman known for stealing the dreams of children. After hundreds of years, Albert and Greta, the actual biological parents of Sally Skellington and the governors over Dream Town, decided that they had to stop him from getting to the Dream Factory where the dream sand was manufactured. After he left to visit the human realm, they created a wall and banished the Sandman to the woods.

He would remain there, starving for dreams, for a long time until Sally inadvertently releases him when she discovered the ancient door to Dream Town.

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen

The Sandman arrives to Halloween Town and spreads his sand throughout the town making everyone, including Jack himself, fall into a deep, wakeless slumber. Upon seeing Sally, he tries to cast her into an eternal sleep but she escapes alongside Zero.

Having visited Valentine's Town with Jack during their honeymoon, Sally returns to that realm in hopes that she could receive help from Queen Ruby Valentino. However, every inhabitant of the town were put to sleep by the Sandman. In desperation, Sally visits the other holidays such as Easter Town, Christmas Town, and Thanksgiving Town, but each one was the same result.

After visiting St. Patrick's Town and meeting a leprechaun who imparts her with a four-leaf clover. She remembers the door to Dream Town hidden away in the woods back in Halloween Town, and she decides to enter it as a last resort. Upon meeting her birth parents, they try to destroy the groves in the forests to keep the Sandman from returning even if it meant dooming the other towns and human realms to the Sandman's wrath.

Returning to Halloween Town, Sally devises a plan where she tricks the Sandman into sleeping with a potion. Having never slept or nevertheless dreamed before, this changes the Sandman's demeanor making him less hostile towards the others. Sally and the Sandman make a deal with him promising to never steal dreams again as long as Sally grants him the sleeping tonic so he could have his own dreams.