2025 EPCOT Candlelight Processional Narrators Announced for Festival of the Holidays

By WDWMAGIC Staff · Thursday September 18, 2025 9:10am ET · "Candlelight Processional"

The 2025 EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays will once again feature the popular Candlelight Processional, a long-standing seasonal tradition. Each year, the event combines a mass choir of Disney cast members and community singers, the Voices of Liberty, a 50-piece orchestra, and a celebrity narrator who retells the Christmas story at America Gardens Theatre.

Disney has announced the full lineup of narrators for this year's performances, taking place November 28 through December 30, 2025. The schedule features new names like Jennifer Garner, Brie Larson, and Henry Winkler, alongside returning favorites such as Gary Sinise, Marlee Matlin, and Brendan Fraser. Notably, fan-favorite Neil Patrick Harris, a longtime staple of the event, is absent from this year's lineup as he is performing in the Broadway show ART.

2025 Candlelight Processional Celebrity Narrators

Showtimes: 5:00 pm, 6:45 pm., and 8:15 pm ET nightly 

  • Nov. 28-29 - Constance Wu (NEW)
  • Nov. 30-Dec. 2 - Jordan Fisher
  • Dec. 3-4 - Jennifer Garner (NEW)
  • Dec. 5-6 - Ashley Eckstein
  • Dec. 7-8 - Ralph Macchio
  • Dec. 9-10 - Leslie Uggams (NEW)
  • Dec. 11-13 - Marlee Matlin
  • Dec. 14-15 - Henry Winkler (NEW)
  • Dec. 16-17 - Lauren Daigle (NEW)
  • Dec. 18-19 - Gary Sinise
  • Dec. 20-22 - Brendan Fraser
  • Dec. 23-24 - Luis Fonsi
  • Dec. 25-26 - Joel Smallbone (NEW)
  • Dec. 27-28 - Brie Larson (NEW)
  • Dec. 29-30 - Sheryl Lee Ralph (NEW)

Bookings for dining packages that include reserved seating open on October 14. 2025 EPCOT Candlelight Processional Dining Packages Announced with Pricing and Reservation Details

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No NPH this year. That's a surprise.
↩ replying to pdude81
He's in a Broadway show.
↩ replying to wdwmagic
Makes sense. I thought that was a limited thing but you're right it goes through December.
↩ replying to wdwmagic
Even during the depths of celebrities shunning Candlelight invites a few years ago, the list was a little more respectable... A few noted award winners in their field, some long-standing invites, and theusual couple of people there to mostly promote something Disney related (and even those are somewhat tenuous)... But then you have a random Puerto Rican TV host, an extremely obscure Australian singer, another Christian singer, someone who is massively involved in controversy in the Broadway community (that I'm surprised didn't scare Disney off), and my brother's ex's best friend? (Okay maybe that one is hyper specific haha.) I mean I get that every invite can't be NPH or Whoopi, but come on Disney...

I mean weirdly enough I'm most excited about the lady who played Blind Al, of the ones I can go to due to my past, in terms of new people.
Wait a minute…what???

…Jenny is there? 🤯
↩ replying to pdude81
Disney priced him out.
↩ replying to Comped
In all fairness to "another Christian singer", Lauren Daigle is incredibly popular, even in more mainstream venues. She'll be a great midweek draw that sells out instantly with a huge crowd outside the seats.

To the rest, yeah, it did seem strange to me how few names I even recognized.
I'm excited for Ralph Macchio and would've been happy to see Ashley Eckstein, too, but we are at the Informer meet-up her nights.
↩ replying to bmr1591
It might be that I don't listen to Christian music and have never heard of her. I've heard of most names (10/15 by name alone), just that I'm not so sure all of them are good fits. (Most names are relatively mainstream-ish enough, even if annoyingly safe choices at this point.) And the rest I had no idea who they were until I googled... Which is possibly not a great sign.
I know most of them, but this was a one and done for us several years ago.
Dining package pricing went DOWN (by $1) for a few restaurants, I think 3. Most went up slightly, and Chefs de France increased $20/adult, unless that is a typo.
↩ replying to Tony the Tigger
I do it at least once every year, sometimes more depending on the celebrities in question. All of them are very different despite the same material, at least I've found.
Brie Larson did Disneylands Candlelight recently super excited she is coming to Disney World! And Jennifer Garner is huge! And so excited Jordan Fisher is coming back!

Joel Smallbone is one half of the Christian music band “For King and Country” and both them and Lauren Daigle have performed at Universals “Rock the Universe” Christian music festival in the past and they are very well known in that world, this will be there first time coming to Disney World!