Holiday Theming

[KJay]

I'll be in Disneyland on Friday, November 5- will I see holdover Halloween decorations, early Christmas decorations...or will I miss them both??!

 

[Sherry E]

I'll be in Disneyland on Friday, November 5- will I see holdover Halloween decorations, early Christmas decorations...or will I miss them both??!

No Halloween stuff at all. As soon as 10/31 passes this year, the Halloween stuff comes down. The Christmas stuff begins to go up as soon as November begins - maybe even a day or two before - so you will definitely see some holiday things (some early signs of Christmas). Some of the food items will probably be available too. But it won't be in full holiday mode yet, with the Winter Castle and the other nighttime highlights. The season doesn't officially begin until 11/12, so I suspect the main things like the giant trees will go up between 11/5 and 11/11.

You will also get to ride Haunted Mansion Holiday, which will stay up from September 17 to early January.

 

[KJay]

I didn't realize the Halloween stuff comes down right away- I guess that makes sense! At least I'll get to see Haunted Mansion decked out. Why do they do that one so early & keep it up so late?

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

I didn't realize the Halloween stuff comes down right away- I guess that makes sense! At least I'll get to see Haunted Mansion decked out. Why do they do that one so early & keep it up so late?

The Haunted Mansion overlay is based on the movie Nightmare Before Christmas which is a mash-up of Halloween and Christmas themes. Therefore, the ride re-theme works well for both holidays, so they can put it up for Halloween season and leave it up until the end of the Christmas season.

 

[Brady's Mom]

We were in DLR last Nov. 5 and there were still Halloween decorations.

During the week following Halloweentime the Halloween decorations come down in areas of the park - for instance, the decos might come down in all of Frontierland and the Christmas decos will start to go up in one night. All of the decorating is done at night, so every day that week is an adventure to see what new decos were put up and what Halloween decos are still remaining.

We thought it was really fun. We never did see any Christmas trees but we did see lots of the hanging swags and other sorts of Christmas decos going up that week.

 

[Sherry E]

I wouldn't want the OP to count on seeing Halloween stuff on 11/5. There are definite start and end dates for the seasons (both Halloween and Christmas), so once the end date passes, things could disappear the next day or in a few days. There's no telling what will happen. I think it just falls on who can get what done and when, and timing. The HalloweenTime season officially ends this year immediately after 10/31. Last year I believe it ended immediately after 11/1 so things were delayed by a day. All the major stuff (Halloween landmarks) will be down (like the giant Mickey pumpkin and all the pumpkins at the turnstiles) by November 5th, I'm fairly certain.

It is probably not planned out that there will still be any Halloween stuff up - and the Halloween stuff is not nearly as thorough and park-wide as the Christmas stuff is anyway, so there is not as much of it to see or to take down. During Christmas, there is no escaping what time of year it is, because the decorations are so thorough and extensive all over DLR.

HalloweenTime is not that extensive at all, so there isn't as much to remove, but I tend to think it's just a matter of how much they can get done in the overnight hours and the time frame in which they have to do it. If they could get everything down in a faster time, I'm pretty sure there would be no traces of Halloween into November. But trying to get all the Christmas stuff up by a season start date of 11/12 probably contributes to the delay in taking Halloween stuff down - what there is of it to take down.

There are 700 Christmas trees of all sizes that go up for the holidays - in all kinds of places around DLR. I think they start putting up the smaller, less visible ones in some places first, and then they save the gigantic trees for last - but people have reported seeing the Main Street tree up a week before the holiday season began. However, I think that was when the holiday season began one week later (in 2008) than it's beginning now. In 2008, it started only 6 days before Thanksgiving, so there was time to get the trees up sooner. Last year and this year it has an earlier start date - 13 days before Thanksgiving and 12 days after HalloweenTime ends, so there is not as much extra leeway to put up the huge trees ahead of schedule.

 

[KJay]

Thank you all so much for the thorough information- as the last post highlights, the logistical complexities must be beyond belief! Now I'll be extra attentive to what is & what isn't up- and I'll be sure to check back in and let you know, in case anyone's interested