Late October or Early November

[Willow25]

We will be traveling with young children coming from Australia. I have an event in Boise Idaho and will need to be there the weekend of November 4th. We will then have about 10 days to spend in California. We would prefer the least amount of crowds but would love to see the christmas decorations. Which would be a better time for us??

 

[auntiegem]

If you want the most Christmas decorations, go AFTER the weekend of the 4th. Starting the day after the 31st, they start taking down Halloween and replacing it with Christmas. By the last day we were there last year (11/10) it was pretty much exclusively Christmas, although the official start of the season hadn't begun (so no snow on Main Street).

 

[Sherry E]

Well, there is seeing the Seeing Christmas decorations...and then there is getting the full Disneyland Resort holiday experience.

The holiday season won't officially begin at DLR this year until either 11/11/11 or 11/18/11, and when it officially begins is when you get to see the gorgeous It's a Small World Holiday, the Winter Castle glowing in "icicles" at night, the snow on Main Street, the Christmas Fantasy Parade, Santa's Reindeer Round-Up, all kinds of holiday treats and all the stuff that makes the season magical.

And after Thanksgiving passes is when the 3 Disneyland Resort hotels are decorated too (the Grand Californian is a highlight).

So if you want the full holiday experience with all of the entertainment and decorations in different lands and everything else that comes with it - you won't get that until at least 11/11, if not 11/18. But you will see Christmas decorations going up a little at a time if you get there before the official start date.

If you go at the end of October you will catch the HalloweenTime season while it's in full swing. It's not as all-encompassing and thorough as the Christmas season is but it's a lot of fun.

I think the early November crowds might actually be lower than the late October crowds, so you may want to go with that time frame after 11/4.