Disneyland - Christmas in the Magic Kingdom

I find that it will take me more than one post to cover Christmas at Disneyland. The decorations were so great, with the incorporation of themes, and so my writing about Christmas decorations will extend beyond Christmas, and I have accepted this.

This week will focus on the Magic Kingdom, next week will focus on California Adventure, and even though I probably could skip Downtown Disney, which is a smaller area and more focused, I will have a week on it too.

When I talk about incorporation of themes, it is not just that there is a theme for one side of the park, but there are decorations specific to that land.

We covered that a little with the focus on It's A Small World last week. For their holiday version, the outside of the ride was bedecked with white tinsel wreaths and garlands with multicolored glossy ornaments, and the insides of wreaths in the expanded area around the ride matched the woodcut style and color scheme of the ride.

It's A Small World is part of Fantasyland, but it is kind of separate from the rest of Fantasyland. Technically, the rest of Fantasyland was not very decorated, and neither were Tomorrowland and Adventureland. That's not to say that there was no decoration at all, but there were areas that did more, and the ways in which they did it was cool.

Toon Town is my least favorite area in the Magic Kingdom, but I could appreciate what they did for decorations. You have the homes of the main characters, and as well as normal downtown buildings like a bank and post office. It is the cartoon equivalent of Main Street.

So, the garlands and wreaths for the public buildings were in bold colors and sort of streamlined, in much the same way that you might draw a cartoon town decorated for Christmas.

Then, with the character houses, that was added to. Mickey's decorations are the most basic and traditional. Minnie has a heart wreath with silver and pink, and her tree is topped with a bow. Donald lives on a boat, and his decorations are kind of nautical. Goofy's decorations were a little more off-beat, and kind of sports-themed. I was surprised to not see any decorations for Chip and Dale's tree, but maybe they are supposed to be hibernating.

Frontierland decorations were very Western, homespun and rustic.

Critter Country could have gone that route and it would have fit, but there was more of a focus on the denizens of the Hundred Acre Woods that inhabit Critter Country, so there was a carrot-themed tree for Rabbit, and honey pots everywhere.

New Orleans Square had more of a gold and glass theme to it. It wasn't exactly Gothic; perhaps it was Southern Gothic with some French influence. Mainly it felt right, which is the overall theme.

Then of course there was Main Street. It was very traditional, with green garlands and wreaths and poinsettia everywhere, and a very tall Christmas tree. It looks Christmas-y, for sure, but they do even better than that.

Every night there is a fireworks show with music. It is very popular. We did not check the schedule, so one night we were caught in a mob of people on their way out. I like fireworks, and I can go for parades, but I like to plan on seeing it, and get myself in a good viewing position. Caught in the crush of people, we did not want to participate, and trying to keep going was not fun, but suddenly it started snowing.

I am aware it was soap suds, and the crowd was still there, but suddenly I got all weepy because it was so beautiful. Disney won over my grumpy cynical heart, and it was still only early November.