Why Christmas?

mshanson3121

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 16, 2015
So... I'm curious (prompted by the other thread). For those of you who prefer to go over Christmas, why? What is it about Disney at Christmas, that makes it worth those crowds? What is it that you would tell someone, to try and convince them to go at Christmas?
 
I would never try to convince someone to visit WDW at Christmas (assuming you mean Christmas week and not just early December).

I would not want to have a hand in them having a terrible experience. And in my book, the possibility of having a terrible experience is high if someone goes Christmas week without very realistic expectations.
 


What sort of attractions? (Besides Osborne lights, lol). I admit, being from Canada, to me it always seems weird to see Christmas decorations up where there's no snow, lol!
Here is a lot of what goes on at Christmas time.

http://allears.net/tp/holiday.htm

Additionally, many people can only go at that time, or other packed times, due to kids in school.
 
I would never try to convince someone to visit WDW at Christmas (assuming you mean Christmas week and not just early December).

I would not want to have a hand in them having a terrible experience. And in my book, the possibility of having a terrible experience is high if someone goes Christmas week without very realistic expectations.
And I fully agree with these statements.
 


I would love to be able to do the Christmas party, but don't see it ever happening, DH will never be off work in time :( Wish they ran it closer to Christmas!
 
Went back in the 80's on the day after Christmas. It was packed back then. ;) My parents were very annoyed with the crowd on that trip.
 
Our schedules (both kids in school and our schedules dictated by the University hubby works for) early on dictated that we either go in December or in the summer.

Being highly averse to heat and humidity, there is NO WAY we would do the parks in the summer.

So the week before Christmas it is.

(We've stayed through Christmas day a few times, but prefer to get home the day before Christmas Eve.)

And while the decorations have shrunk year after year (farewell Osbourne!) , it's still lovely to have "snow" on Main Street, giant Christmas trees and music throughout the parks, decorations at all the resorts and a sense that the trip is our present to enjoy.
 
The holiday season (which begins at WDW in November and goes through a few days after new year's, usually), is beautiful. The decorations in the resorts especially are truly amazing (esp. the life size gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian!). We really enjoyed our early-mid December trip in 2007 because we had all the holiday decorations with none of the holiday crowds.

If we had to choose going with the actual Christmas week crowds in order to experience the holidays, though, we just wouldn't go. This was Liberty Square on Christmas Day 2015 at 9:18am:
2zevtsg.png

Source

As much as I love the decorations and feel of WDW at the holidays, it's not worth it to deal with these kinds of crowds.
 
Now it's been 16 years since I went to Disney at Christmas but in 1 word MAGIC! I went during my Senior year of high school and I can remember walking down the street at DHS and it was all lit up for Christmas and fake snow started falling. And there was something about that moment that I cannot describe but has stuck with me all these years. Now I also remember standing in line for 3 hours to ride Tower of Terror, but it's magic.
 
I wouldn't go this week. We went 17-22 and while it was busy it wasn't like it is this week. But it is beautiful and very festive. I hope we can go back next year

DH and I are going back this weekend. Will be interesting to see if the crowds are still as high. Hoping some are headed home

What sort of attractions? (Besides Osborne lights, lol). I admit, being from Canada, to me it always seems weird to see Christmas decorations up where there's no snow, lol!
That is so funny. I live in the south where it rarely snows, Christmas or otherwise. In 52 years on this planet I've seen snow before, or at Christmas, once. To me it's perfectly normal
 
We used to go to Disney for two weeks every other Christmas (now we just tough out the heat in August). Our reasons were, it worked for our family of teachers (myself, parents, brother, SIL ... all teachers except for DH). It was VERY MAGICAL, but the crowds were difficult (kids were in strollers for some of these years too). One year, we took a Disney Cruise at Christmas - best of both worlds! Disney Magic at Christmas, without the crowded parks. Still got the magical feel and was able to spend time with family, without the overwhelming crowds.
 
I would never try to convince anyone to go over Christmas because I know it's not for everyone. We've gone because that's when I have holidays and I love the lights, decorations, Epcot storytellers and overall Christmasy vibe at that time of year.
 
For those of you who prefer to go over Christmas, why? What is it about Disney at Christmas, that makes it worth those crowds?

I personally wouldn't go after mid december but christmas starts to appear just before halloween and there are several opportunities for less than summer crowds...

For us, the first time we went was more of a lifetime discussion watching the parade every year that once we should go enjoy the holidays at disney. We've always been summer only visitors and WDW was not as exciting as we wanted it to be. We've never been to WDW during any special events like food and wine and the more we looked at what actually is available in the fall/winter, we got more excited about something different to try. We actually went down for halloween and food and wine the first time. We enjoyed everything we didn't experience before so much, we went back less than 2 months later to finally do that christmas holiday. Just experiencing things we never did completely changed the place and it sparked a lot more trips since then because we wanted to try other seasons and events we normally don't even read about but are now very aware we're missing them. To add to it, that original trip was probably going to be one of the last father/daughter trips as my daughter was finishing school and getting ready to start her life. It's now sparked a new father/daughter chapter in our lives.

Also what didn't hurt is the blazing sun isn't as blazing.. Sure it was hot and humid but it wasn't baking yourself hot and it made the place a lot more comfortable, even if there happened to be a crowd...
 
It's great if you're not caring about covering lots of attractions.
Being a semi-local, I'm content with just walking around and not doing any rides actually.
I braved the crowds in Epcot/Hollywood studios the week before xmas for one day, and I solely went to just walk around and bask in the decorations and such.
 
The holiday season (which begins at WDW in November and goes through a few days after new year's, usually), is beautiful. The decorations in the resorts especially are truly amazing (esp. the life size gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian!). We really enjoyed our early-mid December trip in 2007 because we had all the holiday decorations with none of the holiday crowds.

If we had to choose going with the actual Christmas week crowds in order to experience the holidays, though, we just wouldn't go. This was Liberty Square on Christmas Day 2015 at 9:18am:
2zevtsg.png

Source

As much as I love the decorations and feel of WDW at the holidays, it's not worth it to deal with these kinds of crowds.



That photo.......... :scared1:

I have a friend who went Christmas week when her daughter was around 3 and still in a stroller. She told me it was a crazy claustrophobic feeling. They got trapped in the crowd one day and couldn't move at all and felt like everyone was just crushing in on them.
 

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