Disneyland celebrates Christmas in both of its theme parks along with the Disney resort hotels and Downtown Disney. The holiday decorations at Disneyland are truly spectacular and a large part of the appeal of visiting during the Christmas season. So that begs the question, when does Disneyland decorate for Christmas?
Disneyland Christmas Decorations
Disneyland goes all out for the holiday season. I might even argue they decorate even more than Walt Disney World does for Christmas! The park will be filled with lights, sparkling garlands, themed overlays, lights on Sleeping Beauty Castle plus an enormous Christmas tree at the entrance to Main Street.
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Halloween at Disneyland runs until October 31st and decorations will start coming down immediately that night after the park closes. In the past, we’ve even seen Disneyland do a full overnight transition from Halloween to Christmas and even started to transition before Halloween is over. Disneyland Christmas starts on November 15h 2024.
Last year we saw Disneyland transition decorations from Halloween to Christmas as early as October 17th with snow being added to the castle before the Halloween season even ended! You can see our post covering that moment below.
Some visitors try to time their visits perfectly to catch the end of the Halloween season and the start of the Christmas season by visiting before Halloween through the first week of November. It’s a great way to enjoy both these popular holidays although you may not see all of the holiday decorations up. While Disneyland will start to decorate immediately or even before Halloween, you may not see the park fully finished until the official Christmas season start date.
The first decorations to go up are usually the ones on Main Street, U.S.A. as the Halloween decor is swapped out for Christmas wreaths and garland. Disney also starts to work immediately on decorating Sleeping Beauty castle since this is the most time-consuming project as the castle receives thousands of twinkling lights and icicles. The rest of the park will come in stages but still goes up fairly quickly. You can find holiday decorations all over the park from New Orleans Square to Tomorrowland. Most of the decor will be focused heavily on Main Street, U.S.A. The only land in the park to not receive any holiday decorations is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
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Sleeping Beauty Castle Lights
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The most breathtaking display at Disneyland during Christmas is Sleeping Beauty Castle. The castle receives the star treatment with snow-capped turrets and over 80,000 LED lights. The fake snow sparkles in the sun during the day and at night the castle lights up the entire area.
This is by far one of the most time-consuming decorative processes, so Disney will start putting up the castle decorations as soon as possible. Last year we even saw some of the snow go up on the castle roof before Halloween. The castle is guaranteed to be completely decorated by the first official day of the holiday season. Once the holiday season is in full swing, guests can enjoy a lighting ceremony in front of the castle which includes a brief snowfall.
The Disneyland castle is an amazing sight to see. It’s one of the most magical parts of Disneyland at Christmas.
Disneyland Christmas Themed Rides
Technically four of Disneyland’s attractions receive a holiday overlay but the two most impressive are Haunted Mansion Holiday and it’s a small world Holiday.
Haunted Mansion Holiday is also part of the Halloween season at Disneyland so you can expect this attraction to be up and running even before the official first date of the holiday season.
This overlay is based on The Nightmare Before Christmas. Some guests actually prefer this version over the classic because it’s just that spectacular. You can expect to see all the classic characters from the film in the attraction like Jack, Sally, Zero, Oogie Boogie, and more. Each year a new gingerbread house is created for the main ballroom in the Haunted Mansion accompanied by a gingerbread scent as you drift by in your Doom Buggie. This is one of the best parts of Christmas at Disneyland.
it’s a small world Holiday also receives a large makeover but this overlay is exclusive to the holiday season. The exterior of it’s a small world Holiday is decorated with about 250,000 lights that fill the area with light along with a short projection show that happens every 15 minutes. The song of the ride changes to the tune of Jingle Bells as the inside of the ride is also transformed into a festive display with holiday themes and lights.
Typically, it’s a small world will go down for this refurbishment at the end of October. Last year it closed around October 24th and then reopened on the first date of the holiday season. This is the usual pattern so this holiday-themed attraction isn’t usually open before the first date of the holiday season.
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The other two attractions that receive holiday overlays are in Cars Land in California Adventure. Both Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters and Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree receive small overlays for both Halloween and Christmas. The theme songs are changed to match the holidays and decorations go up in the attraction. This transformation can be done quickly so the switch often happens overnight after Halloween ends.
California Adventure
California Adventure also decorates for the holidays with a huge focus on the decor in Cars Land which has some of the most impressive attention to detail. Buena Vista Street is also filled with sparkling wreaths, garlands, and a 50-foot-tall tree in front of Carthay Circle.
These decorations will start going up immediately after Halloween, especially in Cars Land. Cars Land also does elaborate decorations for Halloween so the switch to Christmas will start happening immediately once Halloween ends.
The main celebration that takes place in California Adventure is the Festival of Holidays which includes dining booths with unique food items from all over the world along with holiday entertainment in the parade corridors of the park. The marketplace booths for this festival will start appearing slowly leading up to the official start of the holidays but usually won’t open until the first day. Guests can see decorations start to go up along the festival route quickly once Halloween ends.
Disney Hotels
Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa is the highlight of the holiday season. This hotel features one of the best holiday traditions – the “Grand” Gingerbread House. This giant gingerbread replica of the hotel and stands at 7 feet tall and 12 feet wide, the structure is created from more than 600 pounds of gingerbread, 600 pounds of powdered sugar, 250 pounds of fondant, 1 pound of pixie dust, and features 25 hidden Mickeys.
Most guests don’t realize you don’t actually have to be staying at this hotel to hang out in the lobby. At Christmas time, this is especially fantastic as this deluxe hotel pulls out all the stops for the holidays.
The gingerbread house in the Grand Californian typically won’t be available early but it will be fully decorated and ready for viewing by the first official date of Disneyland Christmas. Guests can start to see decorations go up at all three Disneyland hotels as soon as Halloween ends so you may see Christmas decorations early.
Downtown Disney
Downtown Disney will start putting up decorations the day after Halloween ends with someone decorations going up overnight. You will start to see displays of Christmas merchandise immediately after Halloween ends, sometimes even sooner, in the Disney stores.
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