Disneyland at Christmas is one of my favorite things. Disneyland alone is one of my favorite things, but add Christmas to it and it’s truly extra magical! This year obviously Christmas looks different, but I made a fun scavenger hunt for you and your family to do if you decide to visit Downtown Disney and Buena Vista Street. You can get a sneak peek of it here. You can gain access to it by subscribing to my newsletter on the right.
These are some of my must-dos:
Picture Spots:
- the giant Christmas tree on Main Street
- all the Christmas decorations, especially on Main Street, and It’s a Small World
- the Sleeping Beauty castle with snow on it
- the nighttime lights (revisit the tree and the castle!)
- and characters such as Mickey and Minnie wear Christmas outfits so it’s worth it to stand in line and snap a picture with them too
- Meet Santa Claus (he stops in Critter Country, Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, and each of the three hotels).
Things to Do and Ride:
- Ride It’s a Small World (it has a special Christmas theme)
- Ride the Haunted Mansion (it has a special Halloween-Christmas theme)
- Watch the parade
- Watch the fireworks if you can stay out late (there are spots where it snows!)
- Get special Christmas souvenirs
- Try special Christmas treats
- Bonus: The Grand Californian hotel has a big gingerbread house in their lobby that you can look at in addition to their beautiful Christmas decor, and you can even meet Santa there.
If you need help planning your Disneyland trip, I can help! I have created a free spreadsheet in Google Sheets to help my email subscribers maximize their magical trip to Disneyland. Once you become an email subscriber (use the handy box on the right), you will receive an email with a link to my resource library with various Disneyland resources, including my PDF of tips, downloadable Google planning sheets, Disneyland scavenger hunts, and more! For a sneak peek and more info on my planning sheets, click here. You may also be interested in my posts on taking a toddler to Disneyland, packing a diaper bag for Disneyland, or my other Disneyland posts.
I hope to one day get to Disneyland while the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay is up. Bucket list item for sure!!
I actually prefer the holiday overlay to the normal Haunted Mansion ride.
One of my favorite times at Disneyland! We live 20 minutes way and try to go as much as possible during the Christmas season.
That’s awesome! I feel like I would go more often if we were just a little bit closer!
Sounds super fun! I’d love to go to Disneyland someday!