Spending Christmas at Disney

[kowalchicky]

I'd like to hear from people who have visited Disney during Christmas. Any info would be greatly appreciated. We have a DS10 and DD8, so I'm curious how your children felt being in Disney at christmas and not at home for the normal family traditions. Also how difficult was it to get reasonalbe airfare? I'm kinda afraid to go that week ( this is for a 2008 ) trip because of all the airport delays etc you hear about on the news.....Did Santa visit? Can you get a christmas tree of some type for your room?
All comments, trip stories........welcome

We normally go Jersey Week, how much cooler is it in December?

 

[Tikicampers]

We went just after Christmas. We were there for New Year's. We had the fun of seeing the decorations, and we felt like it extended our Christmas celebration. I'm the type that just can't do Christmas away from home.

 

[MaryKLady]

I was there when I was a kid, 11, for Christmas and didn't care one bit about not being home.

However, now we are going 12/16/07 - 12/23/07 with my DD 4. She was VERY concerned about being home for Santa! I figured at worst I would leave a key with my MIL so she could let Santa in.

We are flying Jet Blue and got round trip seats for $189. I didn't think that was too bad for a holiday season.

 

[Snow Shoe]

This year will be our entire family first Christmas at Disney. I've wondered about this myself. All of our children are grown with families of their own now. The grandkids are old enough to know about santa, and I havn't a clue what their parents are planning on saying about being at Disney at this time of the year.? I feel that this will be a very unique "Christmas/vacation" for all concerned.

Who else has had a Disney Christmas vacation? Tell me more!!!!

 

[kowalchicky]

I was there when I was a kid, 11, for Christmas and didn't care one bit about not being home.

However, now we are going 12/16/07 - 12/23/07 with my DD 4. She was VERY concerned about being home for Santa! I figured at worst I would leave a key with my MIL so she could let Santa in.

We are flying Jet Blue and got round trip seats for $189. I didn't think that was too bad for a holiday season.

WOW! $189.00 round trip that is awesome. I don't even get that good of a fare in November.......I hope you don't mind me asking, but what month did you purchase your tickets?

 

[uncle_donald]

We went with friends and family (maybe 8 people) last year the week before Christmas (I think it was the 16-20); and it was fabulous! Everyone had a great time. So much so that we're all going again this year and bringing another 10 people who want to go just from hearing the stories. We are going the first week of Dec. though, since the crowds were manageable the first few days, but by the Dec. 20 it was already a madhouse with 2 hr lines for everything. I can only imagine what it was like between Christmas and New Years. You may want to reconsider that week. Hotel rooms will definitely be more costly and the airfare will probably be higher too, but that changes day to day. last week I scored airfare $49 each way on Airtran out of Philly, allowing me to fit in an extra trip this year.

The weather is pretty cool in Dec., so anyone with their heart set on swimming maybe disappointed. Disney has a Santa around if your kids want to see him, and you can always tell them their presents will be waiting for them at home or brought to the hotel room. I highly doubt that Disney will allow any Christmas trees in your room, but each park has a huge tree. Good luck.

 

[2goofykids]

We are planning our first Christmas in WDW trip for 12/18-12/27 this year. I had talked with my ds, who is 6, about asking Santa for a very special gift for the whole family this year- a trip to WDW! We are getting ready to write Santa a letter to send us to wdw for Christmas and tell him the things we would like to do there (this kind of gift requires very advance notice ). I have explained to ds that if Santa decides to give us this very special gift he will not be home on Christmas morning but be in WDW. Also he will get a lot less presents from Santa, at least in quantity.
Now since Santa will be sending us much sooner than 12/25, to take advantage of value season, he will be mailing us a very special package to inform us of this special gift the weekend before we depart. Since grandma & grandpa will be in WDW in August they will be helping Santa get some items for the package. Santa will also leave a few small gifts at the hotel on Christmas morning and maybe one or two larger ones for us at home.
We plan to have a small tree and stockings in the room. I am very excited about this Christmas surprise. Now I just have to make sure I don't accidentally spoil it for ds. My dd will only be two, so she won't be a problem.
Hopefully this will be a wonderful gift for my kids and a Christmas to remember.

 

[apostolic4life]

We too are going to be at WDW for our first Christmas day. Our stay will be from 12/19 - 12/26. On Christmas day we will be getting up late and opening some presents and enjoying our family time with a Disney twist. Later in the afternoon we will make our way over to the GF for tea and brunch at the Garden View Tea Room then go to Epcot for the Candlelight Processional and dinner at Le Cellier. Our Day will end with Illuminations and a short trip back to our resort for a great night's sleep.

Christmas + WDW = Magic & Memories

 

[nikmom]

We are going this year, the day after Christmas (26th-30th). I think it will even more magical than the rest of the year! I kind of wish we were going to be there on Christmas day, but we'll have to settle for the day after. I know it will be SOOOO crowded though! But we are planning on being at the parks by rope drop and taking a 3 hour break after lunch and then going back for the evening festivities. We have 3 kids going and want to make it enjoyable and not terribly rushed for anyone! If we don't see everything ... they won't know! Good luck!

 

[kowalchicky]

2goofykids-I think that's a great idea....very cute.

 

[iluveeyore]

We went in '99 - surprised the kids (still don't know how I kept it a secret), picked them up from last day of school, and we drove all the way. I had packed some gifts and our stockings. We were at what was then Dixie Landings before we owned DVC - kids were 4, 8 and 10. We had a great time, stayed for a week and came home on Dec. 26. The decorations were beautiful, the Osborne Family Light Spectacular at MGM was amazing - the kids still remember that holiday and didn't mind making new memories away from home. Their Christmas dinner was actually turkey legs at MK - it was so busy Christmas day that we won't be doing that again, but had fun touring around. I hung their stockings Christmas eve and filled them while they slept - they were so excited! And we had a stocking full of treats on our room door Christmas morning.
We were supposed to go this year with friends for Christmas, but they couldn't take enough time off from work over Christmas, so now we're going in 13 days!!! I know when Christmas comes, I'll wish we were in WDW!!

 

[kowalchicky]

BUMP....
Keep the stories coming......

 

[D L and K's Mom]

We have spent Christmas in WDW twice. Dh and the kids love it...I am on the fence. I love Christmas at home with snow and family etc. They love having Christmas in WDW. I brought along stockings (Disney ones) and Santa left them for the kids. WE explained that Santa would leave all the big presents home for the kids and they were OK with that. Since the parks tend to get crowded we do a non park day. We had breakfast at O'Hana and left the van there (we checked with the front desk both times and was told it was OK) we walke d the beach over to the GF to see the gingerbread house and let the kids see the other decorations. We played on the beach and walked a little and then got a piece of gingerbread for a snack then we hopped on the monorail and went to the Contemporary and looked at all the different decorations there. The kids rode on the"sprites" and then we got back on the monorail and went back to Poly and walked around the resort to see the decorations there. We got back into the van and went back to our hotel POR took a little rest and later we took the boat to DTD to walk and shop.The kids each picked out one Christmas gift from us , Mom and Dad. We took the boat back to POR and got in the van and went to dinner at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had a great time looking at their decorations. It was a great day and we had so much fun at all the different hotels. All the decorations are different and beautiful. The first time we were all sick so Christmas was spent at the hotel....yuck!!! If you do spend Christmas in WDW make sure to go to DTD and order a Christmas ornament from the Christmas store you may have to wait a few days to pick it up. We have 2 beautiful ones with Christmas and the date on them. I love hanging these on our tree at home!!!! We did all the "Christmas festivities" (Candlelight Procc etc.) in the parks a day or two before Christmas. It was very nice to visit all the hotels to see the dec and it was not crowded.

 

[2goofykids]

D,L and K's Mom- Was DTD busy on Christmas day?

kowalchicky- I really like my idea too, I just hope it works out in the end. Trying to keep it quiet is going to be really hard!

 

[D L and K's Mom]

DTD wasn't crowded when we went. We were there in the late afternoon and it was fine. I have been there when it was less crowded and been there when it was more crowded. It was nice. We enjoyed it.

 

[D L and K's Mom]

DTD wasn't crowded when we went. We were there in the late afternoon and it was fine. I have been there when it was less crowded and been there when it was more crowded. It was nice. We enjoyed it.

 

[MaryKLady]

WOW! $189.00 round trip that is awesome. I don't even get that good of a fare in November.......I hope you don't mind me asking, but what month did you purchase your tickets?

I just got them a few weeks ago. Wait, I'll check my cc bill...the first week of June. But we're not going too far either; Newark to Orlando. I checked a lot of carriers and that was the best I could find. I like Jet Blue because there are TV's at each seat. That will keep my DD busy so she's not hopping all over the plane!

 

[D L and K's Mom]

We went Rochester to Orlando for Christmas and it was $249.00 a person on Delta. The flights changed 14 times...yup 14 they kept changing the flight times. We lost a day of the trip becasue we were snowed in and had to stay in Atlanta....it wasnt WDW but it wasnt bad.

 

[SqueakyMouse]

We go the week before through a couple of days after Christmas. We love it! My kids were so bummed the year we stayed home for the holidays to be with a relative in poor health. We have found the parks to have very low crowds up until Christmas Eve (far better than during our May, Oct, or Mar/Apr trips).

So we don't feel as if we've missed out on celebrating the holidays at home, we decorate our house right after Thanksgiving. We also have a big holiday meal with all of our family on Jan. 1st (rather than on Christmas). By the time we leave for our WDW, most of our friends' holiday parties are over; so no one feels as if we're missing out on any special festivities.

We have our own Christmas traditions at WDW. We decorate our resort room tree with Disney ornaments. We also decorate our resort window (during the portion of our stay when we are in a value) and our balcony (when we move to VWL). We have found that we really enjoy having our Xmas Eve meal at Caifornia Grill, Xmas morning brunch at Crystal Palace, and Xmas dinner at Whispering Canyon. Early Christmas morning is spent in the MK (before things get too crowded). The afternoon is spent checking out some of the storytellers in Epcot. After our Xmas dinner, we return to the MK (which really clears out in the later evening).

Some things we've learned: For our kids, it's better to have a small gift each day rather than a bunch of presents to open on Xmas morning.

We also don't try to buy any of these gifts once we're there. We take everything with us.

Have a family photo taken with Santa on Xmas Eve. There's never a line at the deluxe resorts (don't know about the values). The Santas are great!

Take time to appreciate the decorations, the shows, and the characters dressed in their holiday finery. Enjoy!

 

[Grendalynn]

we too have considered going to WDW on or around christmas time... I figured we would probably leave Christmas night or the day after. Where our boys are still going to be little at christmas - 8, 4 and 14 months, we would need for Santa to make a trip at our house before we leave. I think it would make the whole thing waay easier and i would feel that my kids are still having thair christmas as usual and wouldnt have to lug a bunch of stuff to Florida.

Also its my escape from the overly commercialized thing we now call christmas... between the family pulling us in 100 directions and everyone seeming to lose sight of the real meaning of christmas, i have decided to boycot and take my fam to Disney. If we actually do it - we will see - but i thinks its a great idea and somehting we wont soon forget!! Good luck with yoru planning and descsion making - its so fun!!!