Subsonic Radio

Does anyone know about when they start decorating Disneyworld for the holidays? And when do they actually finish?
We are going the week before Thanksgiving, and wondering if it will be done by then.

They literally start Magic Kingdom immediately after the last MNSSHP ends. It goes up in stages over the next couple weeks. The Osborne Lights begin on November 10th. The Epcot Holidays around the World does not begin until November 25th, but I'd imagine the countries' decorations are up before the storytellers begin. I suppose the short answer is yes, the majority of the decorations will be up.

That's good news! I knew it took some time to put everything up. I've been there a couple of times during the week of Thanksgiving, and know they had everything up, but wasn't sure if it would be up the week before.

If they are like DLR, they've already begun.

I guess my memory has failed me, because I could have sworn when I was there for Thanksgiving, and the week after, there were very little to no decorations for Christmas up to and on Thanksgiving, then the morning after Thanksgiving they were everywhere ? Like it happened over night, I remember we thought how busy the night crew must have been to pull off such a transformation ! Granted this was 1989, but still. Did I dream this ?

Sharonofwindham wrote:I guess my memory has failed me, because I could have sworn when I was there for Thanksgiving, and the week after, there were very little to no decorations for Christmas up to and on Thanksgiving, then the morning after Thanksgiving they were everywhere ? Like it happened over night, I remember we thought how busy the night crew must have been to pull off such a transformation ! Granted this was 1989, but still. Did I dream this ?

I wonder if they used to decorate a little later? Kind of like how the retail stores are now, they have pushed and pushed the holidays up to where you need to shop several months in advance in order to actually purchase items for the correct holiday?

I know Halloween is done over a single night. I would think and I recall seeing a special on TV showing something similar for WDW. The only difference is holiday decorations are a bit more intense and take longer to get put up completely. I would think most stuff in the MK would be up as they have to be set for the filming of the Christmas parade that will take place after Thanksgiving.

Len90 wrote:I know Halloween is done over a single night. I would think and I recall seeing a special on TV showing something similar for WDW. The only difference is holiday decorations are a bit more intense and take longer to get put up completely. I would think most stuff in the MK would be up as they have to be set for the filming of the Christmas parade that will take place after Thanksgiving.

I remember dealing with a bit of disillusionment the first time we went to WDW in November and saw them filming the "Christmas Day" parade. I was so surprised to find out it wasn't done live on the actual holiday But it made more sense as I got older because I realized those stars wouldn't want to spend the holiday working...

i was at MK the first week of Oct (sniffle sniffle I wish I was still there) and they were already putting the strings of lights on the castle! They had a big crane right next to it -- that wasn't very magical. We went to the MNSSP and they had the castle and main street bathed in creepy light -- very effective!

They put all the Christmas decorations up well before the parade. Surprisingly, they actually take some down for the parade filming due to cameras, stages, and the stage for the announcers. Christmas decorations start going up the minute the last MNSSHP ends at MK. Epcot usually trails behind MK and DHS. Everything should be up by week before Thanksgiving.

If you go to DLR (since the areas they work in also go along the path for the trams) you can see them assembling the various trees as well. A lot of the big stuff for WDW and DLR is done "overnight" since they have it fully or mostly done backstage and just have to install it. All the really time consuming stuff has to be done early so it creeps in during october, or never leaves.

CarolwoodPacific wrote:They put all the Christmas decorations up well before the parade. Surprisingly, they actually take some down for the parade filming due to cameras, stages, and the stage for the announcers. Christmas decorations start going up the minute the last MNSSHP ends at MK. Epcot usually trails behind MK and DHS. Everything should be up by week before Thanksgiving.

Another famous thing is the wreath over the clock on Main Street. That is a decoration you will only see for the parade as they need to hide the time from the camera

I have a feeling merchandise for the holidays will be rolling out within the next week or two as Halloween merchandise appeared about a week before they decorated MK.

Since the DLR ones don't have an actual parade scene they end up parking floats (if they use them) in spots normally not on the route.

Another odd one is that you will noice you can never see the castle (unless it's part of the scene) for the parade. It will always be obscured by large baloons, people carrying banners, etc. in an attempt to keep continuity.

Len90 wrote:Another famous thing is the wreath over the clock on Main Street. That is a decoration you will only see for the parade as they need to hide the time from the camera

Wizzard419 wrote:Since the DLR ones don't have an actual parade scene they end up parking floats (if they use them) in spots normally not on the route.
Another odd one is that you will noice you can never see the castle (unless it's part of the scene) for the parade. It will always be obscured by large balloons, people carrying banners, etc. in an attempt to keep continuity.

These are cool little tidbits I didn't know ~ neat!

I remember dealing with a bit of disillusionment the first time we went to WDW in November and saw them filming the "Christmas Day" parade. I was so surprised to find out it wasn't done live on the actual holiday But it made more sense as I got older because I realized those stars wouldn't want to spend the holiday working...[/quote]

I was suprised as well. We went the week after Thanksgiving, & Beyonce was recording her segment of the Christmas special. I thought they did the Christmas parade on Christmas. I always envied Regis & Kelly for being able to do the commentating for that parade!