Disneyland at Christmas/Holiday Season Superthread #3!- HOLIDAYS BEGIN 11/12/13!!

[blue888]

We drove from Minnesota, and the return drive was crazy with snowstorms. The mountain passes were a little scary, but the last 90 miles to home were horrible with a blizzard. We drove I think maybe 20 mph for that last bit, and got stuck in snow drifts on the road only about 8 miles from home. This photo is from after the blizzard, but we came home to 14 inches of snow.

We'll be flying this year to avoid icky blizzard travel, haha.

That looks like my yard right now, lol. We are snowed in right now. Vacation can't come soon enough.


I am looking through my photo albums to see if there a photo I can scan of Disney Christmas...

 

[Elk Grove Chris]

Some of my favorites:

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I saw my first Holidaytime Disneyland commercial (with Mater) this morning! It's real!

 

[Sherry E]

I've logged everyone's entries into the random draw! Since I last checked in, there have been amazing contributions from crystal1313, jessicaerv, Janet, Mickeybell, dreamseeker9, trishakay84 and Elk Grove Chris! I'm absolutely astounded at the quality of these photos, both in terms of composition and in terms of the subjects in the shots. You guys are really coming through with great pictures!

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I know I'm skipping some posts I wanted to reply to from yesterday, but I have limited time right now so here are a few just from this page:


trishakay84 -- That snow picture is perfect! It's like something off of a postcard. It may not be fun for the people who have to live in it, but when I (someone who has lived her whole life in Los Angeles) think of snowy, wintry scenes...that's what I think of!


Jamie -- I must not be watching TV at the right times (or maybe I should venture away from the Hallmark Channel holiday movies!) because I have been waiting to see a Disneyland holidays TV ad and have not seen one yet. Even though I thought the Mater ad was cute last year, I think the old "It's a Small World" ads were so much better, because those actually evoked some kind of emotion and childlike excitement.

I have, however, begun to see many other holiday TV ads, but not quite as many as I know there could be. I expect an onslaught of holiday commercials to start when we get closer to Thanksgiving.


blue888 -- Remember, it doesn't have to be a Disney holiday picture. If you have any kind of favorite Christmas pictures from any holiday gatherings or trips, or maybe some nice snow or holiday lights pictures, this is the week to post them! From now through Sunday night, non-Disney holiday pictures are accepted too. Once we get to Monday, we go back to strictly Disneyland Resort stuff.

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And also, those of you who have been to DLR this week or last and have already gotten photos of some of the decor and merchandise that is up, feel free to share them! (perlster shared a photo of the Castle a couple of days ago.) We are eager to see signs of the coming season as they appear!

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[DisneyJamieCA]

Sherry, it was during our local news this morning (ABC). I agree that I prefer the IASW ones, but I do like this one - they play the music and show parts of the parade and then it's just him at the end. They all make me happy though And something has to replace not getting the Hallmark channel. I even looked online and nope Guess I'll have to stick to the ones I can find on Netflix.

 

[Sherry E]

Sherry, it was during our local news this morning (ABC). I agree that I prefer the IASW ones, but I do like this one - they play the music and show parts of the parade and then it's just him at the end. They all make me happy though And something has to replace not getting the Hallmark channel. I even looked online and nope Guess I'll have to stick to the ones I can find on Netflix.

Jamie -

At least there are the upcoming Lifetime movies you can see. While they are not as non-stop/'round-the-clock as the Hallmark movies, they usually do cover many of the weekends during the season, and often feature many of the same B-List and C-List actors that you would find in the Hallmark movies. The movies are pretty much just like Hallmark movies (except some are a bit more serious), and I think they either start this upcoming weekend or the next.

And there are usually at least a couple of new movies on ABC Family every year, mixed in with the other 25 Days of Christmas things.

I remember last year I caught some wacky Christmas movie on Lifetime, with David Hasselhoff as an annoying Christmas planner/organizer who is hired by a busy lady to decorate and plan Christmas stuff for her family. Of course, mayhem ensues -- as it usually does in these movies -- but there is a happy ending (as there usually is in these types of movies!).

 

[danimaroo]

Ahhh I'm so sorry I totally disappeared from this thread! I probably should have mentioned that we were going to Disney World for 11 days back in September... and then I got back and immediately started writing my WDW TR like a madwoman. I'm trying to get as much of it written as possible ahead of time, so I can write a Disneyland TR, too, and not feel remarkably overwhelmed while writing 2 TRs.

Of course, I'm popping back in here when we're a mere 8 DAYS away from our Disneyland trip!! Our excitement level has only grown more and more... to see the Christmas decorations and so much more during our trip is going to be amazing!

I'm sorry I didn't keep up with each week's themes, I've just been so busy! But I will be writing a TR about our trip (though not sure if I'll start it immediately upon our return)... I will ALSO be making another video of our trip! I made one of last year's but it wasn't my favorite, just because I didn't get a ton of footage due to all of the rain we saw during our trip.

Anyhoot, I'm still here, and I am still loving this thread... and can't wait to be in Disneyland in 8 days to kick off the Christmas season!!

 

[Sherry E]

Ahhh I'm so sorry I totally disappeared from this thread! I probably should have mentioned that we were going to Disney World for 11 days back in September... and then I got back and immediately started writing my WDW TR like a madwoman. I'm trying to get as much of it written as possible ahead of time, so I can write a Disneyland TR, too, and not feel remarkably overwhelmed while writing 2 TRs.

Of course, I'm popping back in here when we're a mere 8 DAYS away from our Disneyland trip!! Our excitement level has only grown more and more... to see the Christmas decorations and so much more during our trip is going to be amazing!

I'm sorry I didn't keep up with each week's themes, I've just been so busy! But I will be writing a TR about our trip (though not sure if I'll start it immediately upon our return)... I will ALSO be making another video of our trip! I made one of last year's but it wasn't my favorite, just because I didn't get a ton of footage due to all of the rain we saw during our trip.

Anyhoot, I'm still here, and I am still loving this thread... and can't wait to be in Disneyland in 8 days to kick off the Christmas season!!

danimaroo --

Hello again!

I'm excited for you that your holiday trip begins next week! Honestly, it is still hard for me to process and wrap my brain around the fact that we are now in November and that the season is really here. On one hand I'm delighted (and thrilled to be done with summer)! On the other hand I am wondering where the time went -- it seems like a chunk of the year went missing somewhere along the line. The last 6 months have zoomed by.

Anyway, your last 2012 DLR holiday TR was so much fun, and full of great photos and descriptions, so I know you will have a big following for this next TR.

I wondered what happened to you, but then someone mentioned that you had a WDW trip and TR going. So it all made sense whey you disappeared. (I know how time-consuming doing those TRs can be!) At least you got into a few of the early theme weeks and got a few entries into the random draw.

You know, we're in our final theme week of the Countdown now. From now through Sunday you can post any holiday pictures you'd like (to get one last entry into the draw for the $25 Disney gift card). If you have more DLR holiday photos you want to share, feel free. If you'd like to share some of your WDW holiday photos, that would be great too. If you've visited one of the international Disney parks for the holidays, those photos are welcome as well! And if you have any non-Disney holiday pictures -- just random holiday pictures from any non-Disney trip or get-together that you love and that you'd like to show us, those are welcome too. It's a Holiday Cornucopia o' photos!

On Monday morning I will do the random draw, reaching my hand into a box to pull out one of the crumpled up names of entrants that I have tossed into it! I will announce the winner here, as soon as I have pulled the name.

We've already had one winner -- Kathy (ksromack) won the Code Word Challenge for being the quickest person to submit the correct list of Theme Weeks and hidden code words, as well as the Christmas song to which all of the words belonged. But the random draw contest is open through Sunday night, 11:59 PST!!

 

[PHXscuba]

Wow, I left for a day and it jumped FIVE pages!! Awesome and amazing photos, especially of the other parks. It's on my "Disney bucket list" to see WDW at Christmastime and to visit an overseas Disney park (anytime!)

I was going to put up a couple photos but Photobucket is currently down for maintenance, so maybe later!

PHXscuba

 

[mrsw94]

@Sherry-I should have bought the ice cream at $3! Now it's not on sale and I have to wait! Wah!!


This will be our first trip to see Christmas, but I did manage to find a couple of photos. These are my kiddos from last Christmas....



And this is from our trip in 2010 that I used for a Christmas Card

 

[GeneralTso]

I love seeing all the happy faces on this thread!

 

[aidensmom31]

I havent been able to keep up on here either We lost some people at work and I have been working a lot of overtime.....not good for my free time but the money is great for our trip We have new people now so I get to relax and count down.......I am less than 3 weeks away from the 30 day mark

 

[figment_jii]

More info on the Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen Gingerbread Workshop. I emailed Brennan's yesterday because of the discrepancy between the info previously mentioned and the info in the D23 email and this was the response I got back.

Thank you for your interest in our Holiday Gingerbread Workshops! This year, we will be offering public gingerbread workshops on December 14,15, and 21 and a D23 exclusive workshop on Dec. 22nd. Tickets for the public workshops will go on sale on November 11th through our Facebook page, you should receive an email blast from us about it soon. Tickets for D23 workshop will go on sale on November 18th.

So the one on the 22nd is only for Gold and Silver level members of D23. The other three workshops are open to the public. I'm hoping to go for the first time this year!

 

[Alohagirl73]

How crowded do you think the 15th of November will be? It's the first official day of the holiday season. Thinking of going up with DD that afternoon/evening.

 

[figment_jii]

For the cornucopia!

This was something I "discovered" for the first time last year. I always knew they made them, but I'd never been there when it was happening. Last year I made a point of getting a wristband and getting a candy cane! I love how each candy cane is different!

I wasn't sure where to put this, so the Cornucopia seems like a good place! One of the few in-ride holiday decorations!

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip last December! The weather might not have been that cold, but the castle sure looked wintery.

 

[blue888]

Here is a picture our my front door this morning. Feels like Christmas already, lol

 

[kylie71]

A few of my favorites from DLR, and the.... Resort at Squaw Creek Christmas:

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but wanted to share before I run out the door in case it hasn't.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...es-at-disneyland-park-and-magic-kingdom-park/

 

[ksromack]

I got my Fantasmic dessert party reservations today for dec 6th! Now I can rest easy as our holiday tour and now the Fantasmic seating is taken care off! Whew!

 

[kylie71]

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but wanted to share before I run out the door in case it hasn't.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...es-at-disneyland-park-and-magic-kingdom-park/

Very cute, Thank You Jamie!
Cannot wait to see that! Only 19 days for me! You are getting there too, right?

--Lori