...and may all your Christmases be white

In an insanely short amount of time, the Christmas day has come and gone. The holidays are still going strong (through January 2nd) at the resort, though!

The holiday season officially started at Disneyland on November 12th. Decorations went up all around the resort, the annual "Christmas Fantasy Parade" returned, as did the "Believe...in Holiday Magic" fireworks show. Main Street became home to the gigantic Christmas tree and tree lighting each night, and Santa, Mrs. Claus and the reindeer moved in to the Big Thunder BBQ Ranch. Each night snow fell on the castle and Main Street 3 different times as part of the "wintertime enchantment" mini play in 3 acts - Wish, Dream, and Believe.

One of the most interesting things to me was guests' reactions to the snow fall. It's quite obviously not the snow I see back in Wyoming, but it had people in tears every night without fail. It made me realize snow can be truly beautiful and fascinating to someone who doesn't have to drive in it 6 months out of the year and deal with their travel plans always changing because of it.

I managed to take a few photos of the decorations around the park as well as steal some from my room mate:

the centerpiece in Town Square!

close up of the tree's decorations

the Toon Town Christmas tree

Sleeping Beauty's castle during the day

the Main Street tree at night

New Orleans Square got in the spirit too

Critter Country's decor

 

 

 

"its a small world" has a light show every 15 minutes

 

 

the castle after the snow fall

 

 

Over in Tomorrowland, however, Christmas was scarce. We didn't get any decorations, shows. or events. There is no Christmas in the future, my friends.

this small child battling Darth Vader is close as you'll get to Christmas around here.

Disneyland also puts on a holiday party for cast members and their families. The private parties are held two days in December, and each cast member gets tickets for one of the days. They go enjoy the party and a park full of cast members only on that night, and then the other night they work so the other half of the cast members can enjoy the party. 

It was a really fun experience to have the park open just for cast members and not regular guests. Wait times for attractions were low, there were quite a few rare characters out for pictures, and managers were out doing front of the line roles, taking tickets, and passing out candy canes. The next night,  I worked the party.This was almost as fun as attending; cast members are allowed to eat "on stage", other cast members can bring you churros or cotton candy or hot chocolate, and you can go have fun during your breaks. I managed to get a ride on Big Thunder Mountain in during my 15 minute break, while dressed in my Star Command uniform. 

One of the highlights of working that night was coming back from lunch to discover Ed Catmull, the president of Pixar Animation Studios wearing a Star Command costume and working as Greeter outside Astro Blasters. He was definitely and interesting guy!

Merry Christmas! this may or may not be an illegal use of the Jolly Trolley.