EPCOT's 2024 Festival of the Holidays Adds New Festive Experiences to CommuniCore Hall and Plaza

Nov 01, 2024 in "Epcot International Festival of the Holidays"

Posted: Friday November 1, 2024 1:20pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

This year's EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays will bring seven new experiences to World Celebration from November 29 through December 30, 2024.

Spotlights over CommuniCore Plaza

With new additions to CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza, Disney has stepped up efforts to make better use of these spaces for the upcoming holiday festival. Here's what's in store to elevate your holiday experience:

1. A Grand and Miraculous Gingerbread Display

CommuniCore Hall will host an 8-foot-tall gingerbread Spaceship Earth created by the EPCOT Pastry Team and Walt Disney Imagineering. With hundreds of carefully crafted gingerbread triangles, the display will light up and play music periodically, thanks to the Celebration Countdown presented by CITIZEN.

2024 EPCOT Festival of the Holidays Spaceship Earth Gingerbread House preview

The sphere itself is made up of almost a thousand handcrafted gingerbread triangles to mirror the iconic attraction. There are 240 pounds of honey dough, 100 eggs, 100 ounces lebkuchen spice, 55 pounds dark chocolate, and 100 pounds royal icing. For a final Disney touch, there are 11 hidden Mickeys to represent the 11 countries of the World Showcase.

2024 EPCOT Festival of the Holidays Spaceship Earth Gingerbread House preview

2. Deck the CommuniCore Hall

The holiday décor extends throughout CommuniCore Hall, including the Glittering Grove by Balsam Hill—a seasonal forest featuring shimmering trees. Guests will also find exclusive festival merchandise inside the hall.

3. Experimental Prototype Cookies of Tomorrow

This new Holiday Kitchen inside CommuniCore Hall serves up decorated cookies, including a gingerbread triangle decorating kit inspired by the Spaceship Earth gingerbread display.

4. Favorites of Festivals Past

Right outside CommuniCore Hall, this Holiday Kitchen celebrates beloved dishes from past festivals. Guests can look forward to a nostalgic taste of their favorite festival bites.

5. Snowflake Decorating in CommuniCore Plaza

Kids and adults alike can get creative with complimentary snowflake decorating in CommuniCore Plaza.

6. JOYFUL! A Celebration of the Season

The spirited JOYFUL! performance has a new home at CommuniCore Plaza.

7. Festive Fragrances by Scentsy

A new "snow globe garden" along the walkway between the Imagination! pavilion and World Showcase will feature Scentsy's holiday scents.

Discuss on the Forums

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HauntedPirate33 minutes ago

Hell, there’s the “Holiday Light Fight” series on ABC this year. Any one of those setups outdoes what Disney puts out these days.

HauntedPirate34 minutes ago

Absolutely, he’s a worldwide treasure and I, for one, cannot complain he performed. But the reason he was there wasn’t to improve the performer lineup with an A-lister to go along with the C- and D-listers also performing. It’s… disappointing.

monothingie43 minutes ago

The Holiday display at Newark Airport is on par with this. Is the measure of success for a Disney park now being comparable to that of an airport in New Jersey?

ToTBellHop1 hour ago

Sure, but he’s Elton John. Still an A-lister.

HauntedPirate1 hour ago

I realized today that Elton John’s appearance at the Christmas tapings wasn’t an attempt to boost the performer lineup for the sake of providing an enhanced lineup. They’re hyping the documentary on D+. *Sigh*

castlecake2.03 hours ago

Jollywood is missing something. It just didn’t feel like a party like MVMCP does. We couldn’t quite put our finger on what it was, but something just wasn’t clicking. And the fireworks were super meh.

MickeyCookies12 hours ago

We’ve gone many times but felt MVMCP was exceptional this year. Perhaps my memory is bad but it felt like lots more streetmosphere, they were generous with the cookies, there were low ride wait times, and overall it was just so much fun. Parade and fireworks are always top tier. Truly a trip highlight. Can’t say the same for Jollywood though. We couldn’t believe the same park put these two events together. For all the warmth and liveliness of MVMCP, JN could not be more opposite. Outside of the Muppets show, everything seemed very half baked. The skating show was just…not it. The fireworks show is not good either. And for anything else happening, it all seemed tucked away and you had to go search for it. I’ve heard other people really like JN this year, so not sure if we just hit a bad night or this just isn’t our cup of tea? We wanted to like it, but just fail to see the value here. MVMCP is where it’s at!!

LittleBuford22 hours ago

It’s one of the main reasons to attend the party! If you go again, I would make a point of watching it properly—ideally from Main Street so that you experience the “snow”.

bwr82723 hours ago

Anecdotal: we attended our first ever Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party on Thursday. One thing that surprised me was that the “free” cookies were legit good. And the hot cocoa was decent. The fireworks were awesome, with a jaw-dropping finale. Caught part of the parade in passing. Rode Big Thunder many times, Tron 3 times, Tiana’s twice, Jingle Cruise, and Space Mountain.

Casper Gutman1 day ago

We need a detailed history of the decisions that led to the construction of Communicore Hall. It would be fascinating.

Brian1 day ago

I noticed they didn't put the wreaths on the entrance signs this year.

MisterPenguin1 day ago

Awareness of bare walls is the first step to enlightenment.

castlecake2.01 day ago

Just got a survey that included questions about the holiday decorations at Epcot and I let them know alllll about how much they were lacking

WorldExplorer1 day ago

Oh, look, someone at Disney ran to Home Depot and spent around 200 bucks! Cute. Maybe next year we can get a few strands of real lights held up with command hooks. Once again, I cannot believe people are actually praising their pathetic, half baked efforts.