Merry and Bright, with Plenty of Delight: Your Guide to Disneyland’s 2023 Winter Season

Can you hear the sleigh bells on Main Street? The Disneyland Resort’s holiday season starts November 10 and runs through January 7, 2024. The holidays at the Merriest Place on Earth are comfort food for the soul with dazzling lights, festive eats and treats, and many returning entertainment favorites.

We’ve assembled an evolving guide to everything that’s known about the holidays at the Disneyland Resort in 2023 and will update you here with additional information throughout the season.

First, let’s get you into the holiday spirit…

Ho, ho, ho… Let’s go…

Disneyland Holiday Activities 2023

The holidays are shaping up to be very familiar this year. Main Street features a 60-foot tall Christmas tree, Sleeping Beauty Castle will transform with snowcapped rooftops and nightly twinkling light display, and holiday performers and characters set the mood for a cheerful holiday feeling throughout the park. 

Last year featured new outfits for Mickey, Minnie, and friends. The costumes last holiday were supposed to conjure a warm, vintage-inspired holiday celebration. Aside from just the traditional red and green colors, the holiday attire featured winter-appropriate textures and patterns like velvet, chenille, herringbone & plaid, accented with a sprinkling of gold.

But Mickey and friends have gotten new outfits for 2023 as well, “putting a spin on red and green with midcentury modern-inspired looks.” Here’s what the costumes for Mickey and Minnie, and their closest pals look like this holiday season.

A Christmas Fantasy Parade

The annual holiday parade will roll down Main Street daily during the holiday season, as it has since 1995.

If you’re feeling particularly nostalgic about the parade, we recorded it in 4k from a great spot if you’d like to rewatch this classic holiday offering: 

Holiday Fireworks

And at night, Believe… in Holiday Magic fireworks will light up the sky… one of our all-time favorite fireworks shows. Of course, the show will be punctuated by a magical flurry of fake snow… even on nights the fireworks need to be canceled due to weather conditions. 

MagicBand+ integration is returning to the nighttime spectacular. The wearable technology responds during the show with vibration and lighting up. The MagicBand+ will react during both seasonal holiday spectaculars, “Believe… in Holiday Magic” and “World of Color – Season of Light” (more on that below), in addition to other moments.

For more about MagicBand+, take a look at the article below.

UPDATED: Everything You Need To Know About Disneyland MagicBand+

Haunted Mansion Holiday

Your favorite holiday attraction overlays have also returned. Haunted Mansion Holiday began in time for the Halloween season on September 1st and continues into the early days of 2024 this year. Is it scary? Is it merry? It’s both! The Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay has been delighting guests since 2001. 

You might think people would be tired of it by now, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. We recently asked our audience if the Haunted Mansion overlay should be scaled back or not offered at all, and the overwhelming response was for it to remain for four full months (a third of the whole year). 

small world Holiday

Not to be outdone, “it’s a small world” Holiday also returns this year. Since 1997, the dolls and sets have been redressed for the holidays around the world and the classic song is woven with Christmas carols. It’s a crowd-pleaser and can generate long waits.

Last year, there was a new addition that melted our hearts. Small World introduced a new set of dolls that use a wheelchair. The doll and her wheelchair are designed in the Mary Blair style and are a seamless addition to the attraction. Details can be found below.

Small World Holiday 2022 Opens with a Touching Surprise

Candlelight Processional

The iconic Candlelight Processional at Disneyland will be returning as well. The spectacular production is generally offered the first Saturday and Sunday of December (last year on December 3rd and 4th). That makes it very likely that this year’s Candlelight will be held on December 2nd and 3rd. This emotional event features an array of musical talent (comprised of Cast Members, community choirs and musicians), incredible production, and a secret celebrity narrator. But unlike Florida, Disneyland doesn’t usually give away the celebrity narrator in advance. 

Last year’s celebrity narrator was Viola Davis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Any guesses as to who will be narrating the Christmas story this year? 

For more about the Candlelight Processional for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, including its history and last year’s list of confirmed narrators for EPCOT, be sure to look at the article below…

Disney Candlelight Processional 2023 Narrators, Dates, and History!

 

Disneyland Holiday Guided Tour

The popular Holiday Time at the Disneyland Resort Guided Tour is returning! This 2.5 hour guided tour showcases the memories and stories of Walt Disney and how Disneyland celebrates the season. Also included in the tour is a ride through “it’s a small world” Holiday. The tour concludes with a reserved viewing of A Christmas Fantasy Parade while enjoying holiday treats and receiving a commemorative pin. Holiday Time at the Disneyland Resort Guided Tour cost $110 per person aged 3+ last year. For more about guided tours, check out the article below:

Disneyland Guided Tours – What You Need To Know

Disneyland Holiday Shopping

Holiday shopping never stops at Disneyland. A relatively new holiday store has a permanent spot at the end of Main Street closest to the Castle.  

The holiday merchandise this year features a nostalgic vibe that has already proven to be very popular. Here’s what we think you should look out for on your next visit to Disneyland (or even shopDisney!):

Unwrapping Disneyland’s 2023 Holiday Merchandise

 

The Holidays at Disney California Adventure Park 

Disneyland’s sibling park is also transformed for the holidays and offers a tremendous amount of entertainment and festive food. 

DCA Holiday Decorations and Attraction Overlays

Buena Vista Street & Cars Land are the most completely decorated lands, with Hollywood Land and Grizzly Peak Airfield and Trail lightly decorated. But there are little touches just about everywhere (the two exceptions being Pixar Pier and Avengers Campus), with fun holiday overlays of Cars Land attractions (Luigi’s Joy to the Whirl and Mater’s Jingle Jamboree) and Redwood Creek Challenge Trail (Santa’s Holiday Visit). 

 

And guests can also stop by Paradise Gardens and meet Mirabel from Encanto. 

¡Viva Navidad!

Guests will find all sorts of entertainment for the holidays at Disney California Adventure. 

¡Viva Navidad! Street Party – One of our favorite holiday offerings anywhere is this brilliant little show near Paradise Gardens. It features Mexican folklórico dancers, Mariachis, Brazilian samba dancers, giant puppets, as well as Mickey, Minnie, and the Three Caballeros.

Mickey’s Happy Holidays Procession

This tiny procession dances its way down the parade route. Toy Drummers set the beat as Mickey and friends march down the street to a catchy tune. This is a quick diversion that only takes a few moments to pass you by, so don’t wait too long for it… but absolutely try to catch a glance. 

Disney California Adventure Festival of Holidays 

The big draw for DCA at Christmastime is the Festival of Holidays, a food and entertainment extravaganza throughout the park. It celebrates the diversity of the holiday season around the world including Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Three Kings Day and Christmas/Navidad of course. Food booths (“Festival marketplaces”) are positioned around the park, serving holiday savory, sweet, and beverage items. There have been great and not-so-great options over the years, but we always enjoy exploring the menu. A Sip and Savor Pass allows guests to save a bit of money and can be used across multiple visits throughout the duration of the event. The Festival of Holidays also offers entertainment and concerts. 

Last year, the festival added a new marketplace, Visions of Sugar Plums. 

The Festival of Holidays is centered around food, and how different cultures celebrate through it. We ate our way through the festival this year, and there’s a solid number of options that we’ll be enjoying while they’re around… though, there were also a few misses that we’ll be avoiding.

This winter, Paradise Garden Grill has a seasonal menu featuring an array of Mexican dishes, tying into ¡Viva Navidad! with a selection of new and returning items.

You can see the whole selection of 75+ new and returning eats and treats around the Disneyland Resort in the article below:

All the Sweets, Treats, and Holiday Eats at The Disneyland Resort

One item that drove Disneyland fans wild was a spinning popcorn bucket. This year, the bucket returns but now in gold with different art inlays.

You can see last year’s bucket in action below:

The Mickey Mouse toy soldier popcorn bucket has also been very popular.

The reindeer sipper is making a reappearance this year.

While much of the Festival of Holiday entertainment has been repeated over the years, last year brought a new act: Tina and The Sounds of Celebration! If Tina sounds familiar, it’s because she has been an entertainment staple at DCA for quite some time with the Tina Aladana Band. The powerhouse vocalist and her troupe performed holiday songs in addition to salsa, merengue, cumbia, and rock Latino music. 

Tina is back this year along with festival favorites the Mariachi Divas, Mostly Kosher, Blue13 Dance Company, Phat Cat Swinger, and The Mistletoes.

Music and dance performances will be offered at the Palisades Stage, Sonoma Terrace and for the first time, in the Hollywood Backlot, where Disney Festival of Holidays will also be celebrated.

Here’s The Festival of Holidays Entertainment:

• Tina and the Sounds of Celebration! at Paradise Gardens Park (Saturday through Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.)
• Phat Cat Swinger at Paradise Gardens Park (Daily 5:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.)
• Mariachi Divas at Paradise Garden Band Stand (Daily 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 3 p.m., 4 p.m., and 5 p.m.)
• Mostly Kosher by Studio Catering Truck (Daily 3:50 p.m., 4:50 p.m., 5:50 p.m., 7:15 p.m., and 8:15 p.m.)
• Blue13 Dance Company in Hollywood Land (Daily 4:20 p.m., 5: 20 p.m., 6:45 p.m., and 7:45 p.m.)
• The Mistletoes on Sonoma Terrace (Daily 11:30 a.m., 12:25 p.m., 1:20 p.m., 3:05 p.m., 4:05 p.m., and 5:10 p.m.)

World of Color – Season of Light

The holiday version of World of Color brings all the feels. It uses traditional holiday music and projects moments from Disney films on the fountains and mist screens.

And as mentioned earlier, there will be MagicBand+ integration to the show. As the spectacular takes place, the band will make vibrations and change color in synch with the show.

Christmastime in Downtown Disney & Disneyland Resort Hotels

Because many of the shops and restaurants in Downtown Disney aren’t owned by the Disney Company, there’s a variety of Disney and non-Disney holiday activities and offerings here.  The area is usually decorated with holiday trees and lights, but those decorations arrived very late in the season last year and were no more exciting than your average mall. 

For a part of last year’s holiday season, there was just a single Christmas tree this year in Downtown Disney with very minimal floral plantings. Sad. 

This year, the holiday experience in Downtown Disney is supposed to be plussed up with soap falling every night every half hour from 6-10pm in the area between Jazz Kitchen and Black Tap.

World of Disney serves as your holiday shopping hub in Downtown Disney. The center of the store is the first to receive merchandise with the entire store slowly adding seasonal items as the holidays approach.  

Disneyland’s three Hotels also get into the spirit with decorations and themed trees, as well as carolers and visits from Santa. Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa puts in the biggest effort with a giant (real) gingerbread house display and holiday treat stand.  

Last year, a new addition to the hotel holiday lineup, the Disneyland Hotel celebrated Diwali with a special Indian Chai Archisha Tea at The Coffee House with performances from the Blue13 Dance Company nearby. 

Holiday Merchandise

The holiday merchandise around Disneyland is in full swing, and there’s some great options this time around.

You can see everything that is currently available at the resort in the article below:

Unwrapping Disneyland’s 2023 Holiday Merchandise

 

The Holidays Live with Dusty Sage

Want to see how it all looks in person? Here’s a live video walk-through of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure last holiday season. Join Dusty Sage for a merry holiday promenade. 

Disneyland Resort Holidays Through Jan 8th 

The holidays at Disneyland run from November 10, 2023, through January 7, 2024.

Are you ready for the ho, ho Holidays? Let us know what you are looking forward to most! Do you think Disney should spice up the holiday offerings with something new, or do you like things the way they are? Share your thoughts in the comments.

 

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