When you think of a trip to Walt Disney World what is the first word that pops into your mind? For me that word is “Magic”. The only thing that comes CLOSE to the magic that WDW can provide is Christmas. Luckily for us WDW does both. That's right! Too warm for snow? Good thing it snows on Main Street. Did someone tell you there was only one Santa? Think again! With the holidays right around the corner, I thought this would be a good opportunity to take a look at what they have to offer park to park.
Magic Kingdom: I mentioned the snow on Main Street USA above, but one of the coolest things you can see during the Christmas season is Cinderella Castle lit up with approximately 200,000 twinkling lights. It gives the illusion that it has been covered in a fine sheet of ice. Take a look at the video below for a better idea of what it looks like. I apologize for the audio quality.
Thanks to “Whoville” on Youtube for the vid.
Epcot: One of the coolest things you can see just happens to be in Epcot's World Showcase. Each country surrounding Bay Lake has it's own SANTA CLAUSE! Sure they may go by a different name, but they all represent the same spirit of Christmas. Every Santa has a different story to tell and it's very neat seeing everyone gathering around to hear the differences between them.Mexico – The story of the Three King's journey to seek the baby Jesus.
Norway - Julenissen, a gnome tells a funny story.
China - The Monkey King tells a tale of whimsy.
Germany - St. Nicholas tells a story about great holiday traditions.
Italy - La Benafa talks about how Italy celebrates the Epiphany.
America - Santa and Mrs. Claus are presented in Santa's Workshop
Morocco - Taarji shares the story of Ramadan.
Japan - Daruma the doll seller talks of celebrating the birth of a new year.
France - Pere Noel reads a letter.
United Kingdom - Father Christmas talks about the traditions in the U.K.
Canada - Papa Noel talks about holiday traditions in Canada.
It's definitely worth the mile long trip around the world to hear.
Hollywood Studios: As if Cinderella Castle didn't have enough lights, Hollywood Studios has the Osbourne Family lights display (No, not Ozzy Osbourne). I'll let the video show you what it's all about.
It's a great example of how many lights have been strewn over the streets of New York.
Animal Kingdom: Unfortunately the Animal Kingdom doesn't do much other than Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade. Nothing much more than characters dancing and singing to holiday music while dressed in holiday attire. They do, however, have some amazingly tall Christmas trees with highly detailed ornaments featuring all sorts of animals. It seems that I like to avoid most things about the Animal Kingdom, but as a park that closes the earliest and has little to offer in the ways of Christmas it's kind of difficult to find something to expand upon.So if you're ever in need of some holiday cheer just keep WDW in mind. They manage to keep that magic alive even with the larger crowd numbers during this particular season. When I was there for Christmas back in 2006 the crowd level was so high that we had to be re-routed through the cast area behind Main Street USA. It was actually kind of neat being able to see behind the scenes a little bit. It made the trip that much more special.
Happy holidays everyone!
