November 12th marked the official beginning of the Holidays at the Disneyland Resort. Ray and I had the pleasure of spending the start of the season at the Disney parks in Southern California with Ben, Noah and Tiny Tim, courtesy of Disney. It was three days full of fun rides, good food and royal treatment. We even got a special surprise visit from one of our favorite ducks!

Downtown Disney, Disneyland and California Adventure are completely decked out with a 60-foot tall tree, wreaths, garland candy cane lettering and plenty of bright lights. I absolutely adore the parks at this time of year. Let me tell you, the place is beautiful!

Ray and I had a chance to speak with Danielle, a Disney Ambassador, about some of the secrets surrounding Disneyland’s Holiday celebration. She told us all about the giant candy canes made especially for Christmas… Yum!

MORE FUN FACTS FOR A MERRY DISNEYLAND HOLIDAY CELEBRATION

·    The first Disneyland holiday celebration was in 1955, when Walt Disney placed a Christmas tree in the Hub at the north end of Main Street, U.S.A., near Sleeping Beauty Castle.  For many years now, the tree has been located in Town Square near the Main Street Disneyland Railroad Station.

·    Since 2008, the Disneyland Christmas tree in Town Square has been artificial. It stands 60 feet tall and has 280,000 pine-tip branches molded from actual tree branches. It is decorated with more than 2,000 ornaments, including the three-foot star on top, and nearly 4,800 LED lights. When the Sleeping Beauty’s Winter Castle show reaches its finale crescendo, 64,000 energy-efficient LED lights and 1,200 strobe lights are added to the effect.

·    Since the introduction of the artificial Christmas tree and LED lighting technology, the Disneyland park Christmas tree has used 50 percent less electricity than it did previously.

·    The nighttime Sleeping Beauty’s Winter Castle light show is divided into three “acts” over the course of the evening. Each one begins at the Castle and travels the length of Main Street, U.S.A., finishing at the Town Square Christmas tree. Each act features a magical snowfall, and the final act concludes with “Believe…in Holiday Magic” fireworks.

·    The nighttime light show employs more than 200,000 points of light, 2,600 individual circuits and more than 85,000 individual wiring connections.

·    If all the cables and conductors for the show were laid end to end, they’d stretch 48 miles, past the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.

·    In addition to the giant Town Square Christmas tree, there are 100 other artificial Christmas trees, lit and fully decorated, in Disneyland, Disney California Adventure park and other locations at Disneyland Resort. There are also more than 8,000 feet of decorated holiday garland installed throughout the resort.

·    The CALIFORNIA letters at the entrance to Disney California Adventure are transformed at this time of year with candy-cane striping. The largest ornaments used at the Resort may be found in the “bugs-eye-view” world of Flik’s Fun Fair at Disney California Adventure.

·    The smallest ornaments used at the resort may be found in the Storybook Land attraction at Disneyland.

“it’s a small world” Holiday

·    Decorators use 50,000 Christmas lights on the façade of “it’s a small world” Holiday, and an additional 200,000 mini-lights in the trees, hedges and topiaries surrounding the attraction.

·    Among the holiday special effects inside the attraction: pine tree and peppermint scents in the European scenes; 75 gallons of bubble juice to make bubbles throughout the season in the South Seas scene.

·    Nearly 150 giant candles decorate the Christmas Tree in the European scene, and 7,500 lights sparkle on the Snow Flake Tree in the “it’s a small world” Holiday finale.

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