The Holidays are back at the Disneyland Resort. If only someone had told Mother Nature, though.
The first weekend of holiday celebrations at Disneyland in two years arrived with searing sunshine as temperatures pushed 90 degrees. While I am sure that sounds enticing to some readers enduring brisk autumn cold, it's not the type of weather that puts anyone in the holiday spirit.
So I will leave until later in the season all those wintery Festival of the Holidays dishes that would seem much more enticing in cooler temperatures. The ¡Viva Navidad! event in California Adventure's Paradise Garden this year celebrates the upcoming Disney animated film "Encanto," but that film does not open for another couple weeks, making its presence feel a bit out of season, too.
Let us then start the day with a callback that bridges the changing seasons - Disneyland's Haunted Mansion Holiday. I invite you to watch my on-board ride-through video from today on Theme Park Insider's Instagram page.
When the sun finally sets and the temperature falls into the 60s, it begins to feel a lot more like Christmas at Disneyland. Watch the moment when It's a Small World's holiday facade lights up at twilight on Theme Park Insider's TikTok.
It's a Small World Holiday may be out of commission for now, thanks to that flooding accident, but the Small World facade remains a fine backdrop for an evening performance of the A Christmas Fantasy parade.
Nighttime allows Disneyland to glow with its holiday lights, creating a festive spirit that not even ever-warming autumn temperatures can diminish.
There's even time to make a wish for some southern California valley "snow," with the twice-nightly Wintertime Enchantment moment. I posted this one over on our Instagram page, too.
And let's end the evening with the return of the Believe... In Holiday Magic fireworks.
Today brought wall-to-wall crowds to the Disneyland theme parks, as tens of thousands of Californians gathered to experience Disney's brand of holiday magic that they could not last year. While the heat and the crowds made that spirit hard to find in the light of day, the evening darkness allowed it to shine.
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