Nightmare Before Christmas under the stars at Stansted

If you are after an easy family plan for the first weekend of October, Stansted Park has a screening that fits the season. On Sunday 4 October at 5:00pm, the estate shows Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' as part of Adventure Cinema, the UK's biggest open-air cinema company, which runs more than 300 screenings across the country. Tickets are under £20, and the film is rated PG, so it works for younger children as well as adults.

The setting is a big part of the draw. Stansted Park is a Grade II* listed Edwardian stately home in Rowlands Castle, Hampshire, sitting within the South Downs National Park and surrounded by 2,000 acres of ancient forest and parkland. The estate goes back at least to 1094, and the house itself has a Caroline revival interior. In 1924, Vere Ponsonby, the 9th Earl of Bessborough, took it on as a family home, and in 1983 his son, the 10th Earl, gave it to the public by setting up the Stansted Park Foundation. The house is closed for the season now, but the grounds stay open all year, and there is no entry fee to get in, with parking free as well.

As for the film, 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is the 1993 stop-motion musical fantasy that Tim Burton produced, based on a poem he wrote in 1982. Henry Selick directed it and Caroline Thompson wrote the screenplay. It runs 76 minutes, grossed £109 million at the global box office, and picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects. In 2023 it was added to the US National Film Registry for preservation. The voices are a good part of it: Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington, Danny Elfman singing the role, Catherine O'Hara as Sally, Ken Page as Oogie Boogie, William Hickey as Doctor Finkelstein, Glenn Shadix as the Mayor, Paul Reubens as Lock, and Ed Ivory as Santa Claus.

If you want to make a day of it, the grounds give you plenty to do before the 5:00pm start. The Dutch Garden and the Arboretum are open daily from 9:00am to 5:00pm, the Farm Shop runs 10:00am to 4:00pm, and the Pavilion Tearoom is open from 9:00am to 5:00pm. The Maze is open on weekends and school holidays until the end of the October break, 11:00am to 4:00pm weather permitting, at £2.50 a person. The Light Railway runs Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10:00am to 3:30pm, at £3.50 for adults and £2.50 for children, with under-3s free. Forest car parks are open daily from 8:00am to 5:00pm.

Getting there is straightforward. The park sits between Chichester and Portsmouth on the Hampshire and Sussex border, near the A3 and A27. Park at the Garden Centre Car Park off the South Entrance, and if you are coming by train, Rowlands Castle is two miles away and Havant is four. For What3Words, the Garden Centre Car Park is ///widely.eased.halt, the Bothy Car Park is ///astounded.companies.timeless, and Stansted House is ///observes.momentous.reception.