Here’s Everything Happening at Disney World for the Holidays This Year

We’re more than halfway through the year now, which means it’s time for theme parks to start announcing all their Christmas plans. This week Disney unwrapped the details on all the special holiday happenings at Disney World this winter. Here’s what you can expect, from the parks, to Disney Springs, to Disney’s on-property hotels.

Let’s start with Disney World’s original theme park: the Magic Kingdom. It’ll be home to the Frozen Holiday Surprise, a nighttime show featuring the characters from Frozen and a magical transformation of Cinderella Castle into a “crystalized palace.” (I guess they don’t want to say “ice palace” since it won’t actually be made of ice?) The Jungle Cruise will undergo its annual rechristening as the Jingle Cruise, with holiday decorations all throughout the ride, and new holiday-themed jokes from the ride’s skippers. And speaking of decorations, the Magic Kingdom will be absolutely covered with ‘em throughout every land, so make sure to bring your camera. I mean, you almost definitely have your camera on you at all times, since it’s 2025 and every phone is a camera, but, you know, just in case you had to be reminded, for some reason. The Magic Kingdom is also once again home to the yearly Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, which is a separately ticketed event running on select nights; more on that below.

Over at EPCOT the Festival of the Holidays will teach you how the world celebrates the winter holidays at World Showcase. The Holiday Storytellers will be returning at eight pavilions, with a ninth retelling the story of Hanukkah between Morocco and France. Seriously, if you’ve never met A Mischievous Magical Barn Santa at EPCOT’s Norway pavilion before, you’ve never really holidayed. The always popular Candlelight Processional will once again have three nightly performances at the America Gardens Theatre at the American Pavilion, with a series of celebrity narrators popping in to tell the story of the nativity. And of course there’ll be holiday food from around the world at the Holiday Kitchens throughout EPCOT. But wait: there’s more! Olaf’s Holiday Traditional Scavenger Hunt will send you to all corners of World Showcase to learn about various holiday traditions, with a special prize for anybody who finds all 13. And Living with the Land, one of two rides left from EPCOT’s first decade, will undergo its regular holiday makeover once again.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios gets into the spirit with a holiday-themed finale to For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration. Guests will also be able to enjoy Sunset Seasons Greetings, a series of projections that will turn the Hollywood Tower Hotel into everything from a Muppets gingerbread house to the village from Mickey’s Christmas Carol. Toy Story Land will be decked out with massive holiday decorations, and the reservation-only Minnie’s Holiday Dine will serve up a holiday feast at Hollywood & Vine. And Hollywood Studios will host its own separately ticked special event, Disney Jollywood Nights, on select nights throughout November and December.

Finally, Disney’s Animal Kingdom will celebrate the holidays with its Merry Menagerie, a herd of painfully adorable puppets that truly seem to have a life of their own. The band of cold weather critters includes puppets, snow foxes, polar bears, and reindeer, and every time I ever meet one I am basically convinced that it’s a real, live, autonomous animal and not a puppet. The Tree of Life Awakenings Holiday Edition is a nightly show that turns the park’s signature icon into a bright, shining beacon of holiday warmth. And you can grab a photo with Mickey and Minnie in festive adventure gear at Adventurers Outpost.

That’s what you’ll find at the parks every day during the holidays. You don’t need to buy a ticket to find some holiday cheer on Disney World’s spacious property, though. Over at Disney Springs, the resort’s shopping district, you’ll find the Disney Springs Christmas Tree Stroll. Disney goes all out decorating trees throughout Disney Springs, including many themed after popular characters and rides—including a grim Haunted Mansion tree that’ll definitely leave you grinning. Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar—known popularly as “that Indiana Jones bar”—turns into Jock Lindsey’s Holiday Bar during the season, with all kinds of decorations and seasonal food and drinks. Musicians will be playing holiday music throughout Disney Springs all holiday long, and Santa Claus will be meeting and greeting kids up through Christmas Eve. And every night Disney Spring’s Town Center will get dusted with snow, for all the Floridians who’ve never known the joys of a white Christmas.

Disney Springs is where you go when you don’t want (or can’t) buy a ticket—or, y’know, just want to get some shopping done. If you want to buy a special ticket—a ticket for a special event, one you can’t normally buy unless it’s the holidays—you’ll want to go to either Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom or Disney Jollywood Nights at Hollywood Studios. Both shindigs are separately ticketed nighttime events that get you access to the parks starting late in the afternoon on the day of your ticket. Expect special treats and merch, unique holiday entertainment, a Christmas parade in the Magic Kingdom, and smaller crowds, which typically mean shorter lines for rides. Tickets go on sale on July 16 exclusively to people who also book stays at specific Disney World hotels, and yes, these typically do sell out fast, especially Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

Here’s how this breaks down. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party will be held at 7 p.m. (with guests allowed to enter as early as 4 p.m.) on the following dates: