Disneyland Resort Announces 2026 Holiday Season Dates and Details

By WDWMAGIC Staff · Wednesday August 26, 2026 12:12pm ET · "Disneyland Resort"
Disneyland Resort Announces 2026 Holiday Season Dates and Details
Disneyland Resort's 2026 holiday season runs November 13 through January 6, 2027, with new character outfits, Santa moving to Mickey's Toontown Trolley Barn, and Haunted Mansion Holiday marking 25…

Photos / 25 in this gallery

Holidays at Disneyland Resort 2026

Holidays at Disneyland Resort start November 13, 2026, and run through January 6, 2027. The season brings back seasonal decor, entertainment, and food across Disneyland park, Disney California Adventure park, the resort hotels, and Downtown Disney District.

Here's a look at what's coming this year.

Disneyland Park

Main Street, U.S.A. gets its 60-foot Christmas tree back, and Sleeping Beauty's Winter Castle is covered in 80,000 lights every night of the season.

Want a deeper look at the traditions? The Holiday Time at the Disneyland Resort Guided Tour covers Disneyland holiday history, stories about Walt Disney and his family, and reserved viewing for "A Christmas Fantasy Parade." It's an added cost, and booking details will be posted on Disneyland.com later.

New this year: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and friends debut new holiday outfits in Town Square, styled around winter travel and an alpine gathering.

Santa also has a new spot. He's now meeting guests at Mickey's Toontown Trolley Barn, near Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. On the way, stop by "Bluey's Best Day Ever!" for a dance party with Bluey and Bingo, still running at the Fantasyland Theatre.

Entertainment highlights at Disneyland park:

  • "Believe...In Holiday Magic" fireworks, with snowfall effects over Main Street, U.S.A.
  • "A Christmas Fantasy Parade," featuring reindeer, toy soldiers, and a Santa Claus finale
  • Haunted Mansion Holiday, marking 25 years of the gingerbread house display
  • "it's a small world" Holiday, lit with 400,000 lights outside

Disney California Adventure Park

"World of Color – Season of Light" returns November 13, 2026, with scenes from Beauty and the Beast and Inside Out.

Buena Vista Street brings back Mickey Mouse and friends in winter attire, and Paradise Gardens Park features the Holiday Toy Drummers. Redwood Creek Challenge Trail turns into Santa's Holiday Visit, with games and activities for kids before they meet Santa.

Cars Land lights up at sunset each day for the "Sh-boom" moment, and two attractions get winter overlays: Luigi's Joy to the Whirl and Mater's Jingle Jamboree.

Disney Festival of Holidays runs across six marketplaces with new and returning food items. You can buy a Sip and Savor Pass, which includes six digital coupons for food and non-alcoholic drinks at participating locations. More on that at Disneyland.com.

Other shows and performances at California Adventure:

  • "Mickey's Happy Holidays" cavalcade
  • Daily live performances at Paradise Garden Bandstand
  • "A Musical Christmas with Mariachi Alegría de Disneyland & Miguel!" on select days
  • "Mirabel's Gifts of the Season," featuring music from Encanto

Disney ¡Viva Navidad! also returns, with a street party featuring The Three Caballeros, folklorico dancers, mariachis, and samba dancers on select days.

Disneyland Resort Hotels

Each hotel gets its own seasonal decor and entertainment, including carolers. Santa makes stops at Disneyland Hotel, Pixar Place Hotel, and Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. The Grand Californian lobby also features a 7-foot gingerbread display modeled after the hotel's architecture.

Holiday character dining runs November 16, 2026, through January 3, 2027:

  • Goofy's Kitchen Celebrates the Holidays! at Disneyland Hotel
  • Daisy's Holiday Pajama Party at Storytellers Cafe, Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa
  • Mickey's Christmas Carol Feast at Storytellers Cafe, Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa

Reservations open later on Disneyland.com.

Tenaya Stone Spa at the Grand Californian is also offering holiday treatments, including the Naughty or Nice foot treatment and the Joy of Holiday body treatment, for an added fee.

A hotel offer opens for booking September 22, 2026, with up to 20% off select stays of three or more nights at Disneyland Hotel, Grand Californian, Pixar Place Hotel, and The Villas at Disneyland Hotel. It applies to stays from October 11 through December 18, 2026, based on availability.

Downtown Disney District

Downtown Disney turns into a winter scene starting November 13, 2026, with nightly snowfall and seasonal food and drink. The Downtown Disney LIVE! Stage runs nightly entertainment, from holiday music to DJs and bands.

Chip and Dale's Ornament Trail runs November 11, 2026, through January 6, 2027. Buy an activity map at a participating shop, find the ornaments hidden around Downtown Disney, then trade the map in for a keepsake ornament.

Holiday Merchandise and Food

New collections this year include the Mickey Mouse and Family Christmas Collection, Holiday Pastel Collection, and Disney Vintage Holiday Collection, sold at Disneyland, California Adventure, and Downtown Disney. Standout items include the Mickey Train Light Up Bucket and the Holiday Stitch Christmas Tree Sipper.

Returning food items include the Mickey Elf Shake at Schmoozies! in California Adventure and the Milk and Cookies Tree-shaped Macaron at Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe in Disneyland.

Dining packages, including the "A Christmas Fantasy Parade" package at Plaza Inn and the "World of Color – Season of Light" Dessert Party, will have details posted at a later date.

Conversation

37 comments
Discuss on the Forums
Glad they are not taking a show out of the Fantasyland theater.

Waiting for ratchat to make their annual claim that no one likes A Christmas Fantasy or Believe in Holiday Magic cause they are "old".
↩ replying to CaptinEO
I think at this point, the Christmas Parade and fireworks need to be around forever.

Update the floats every so often. Make sure it is in good shape. But it's such a delightful parade, and Disney today will never be able to do better.

The Christmas Fireworks are also incredible - they're not over the top. They're not a Disney movie clip show. Just great Christmas music. Disney doesn't make shows like that anymore.
No, sorry, A Christmas Fantasy and Believe in Holiday Magic are ancient and in desperate need of, at minimum, a substantial update, if not outright replacement.

Especially Believe. ACF is at least charmingly dated. BIHM is just a complete nothingburger of a show and is the worst fireworks show in the US. Its best moment-the snowfall-has basically nothing to do with the rest of the show and happens almost incidentally after the fact, and they could and do IIRC run the snow without the rest of the show at times. It's sedate rather than lively, and its time has come. To be honest, I'd take the wretched Pixar show over Believe. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that regional parks like Kings Island have done better fireworks and drone shows than Believe. That's how unimpressive Believe is to me. Sorry not sorry.

WDW has updated their Christmas parade a fair amount over the years to no real complaints (granted, they also hide theirs behind a paywall until it's the literal holidays, so I'm sure that plays a role) and there's zero reason Disneyland can't do the same except laziness and people allowing Christmas to stay exactly the same forever because *nostalgia*.

On a positive note, I will say that I'm very happy that Viva Navidad is not affected by the Coco construction and that Seasons of Light is coming back. And while I don't personally have any use for Bluey at the Fantasyland Theater, it is ultimately beneficial for guests visiting during the busy periods to have one more valve to soak up some crowds and hopefully reinforces to the powers that be that there is a market for entertainment at DLR.

Hopefully this year Disneyland considers the possibility that people might want to buy their Festival of the Holiday foods for longer than just from noon to 6 PM!
How does Halloween last longer (71 days) at Disneyland than Christmas (54 days)? Absolutely insane and shameful. Christmas should start Oct. 27 at Disneyland to make things equal. At least then Haunted Mansion Holiday could justifiably exist.
I am so happy that Disney ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party is back. I was prepared for it not to return and am thrilled for this announcement.

As for ACF and BIHM… I would welcome replacements but I understand this is not where they are spending money on new experiences right now.
↩ replying to Distorian
Three words, Oogie Boogie Bash.

It lasts longer so they have have more after hour events. If it wasn't for the upcharge events there wouldn't be a reason for Halloween season to last so long.
↩ replying to Disney Irish
I'm aware my problem is actually with the people who fuel Disney's decision making with their dollars, but I still detest it. The company should at least have some decency. Why not just have Halloween events year round? The suckers will eat it up.
↩ replying to Distorian
I think its just the nature of the operational logistics. It takes two weeks for the complete changeover in the Parks from Halloween to Christmas. I'm sure they'd love to start the Christmas season on November 1st, but would have to find things to cut down on to save time on the change over, so we'd have to lose some thing and that isn't good.

Its also a double-edged sword, cause you have some people on the other side of the discussion who think they shouldn't start Christmas until December 1st to give time for the Parks to breathe.

I see all sides of this, and really Disney can't please everyone, so this is probably as close to a "happy medium" as you're going to get within the operational constraints that they have.
↩ replying to Disney Irish
I'm ok with Christmas starting Nov. 13, it's the extra 17 days Halloween receives I find ludicrous.
↩ replying to Disney Irish
They already start putting the snow on the castle before Halloween is over. And yet, they say they care about "show"...
↩ replying to SuddenStorm
To be fair it does snow in some parts of the US by Halloween.
↩ replying to Disney Irish
C'mon.

The snow on the castle before Halloween's over has become a meme at this point among the fandom because of how clearly incongruous it is with its surroundings.

We all know that that's not why the snow's on the castle that early.

I understand that it's an undertaking to get the holiday decor up and down, but if the snow must show up on the castle before Halloween actually happens, it seems absurd to say that they couldn't get another weekend of Christmas out of it with just a little more manpower, money, and determination.

I imagine the money they would make from Disfluencers showing up to try all the new seasonal treats would practically pay for the added labor costs all by themselves.
↩ replying to PiratesMansion
I’m just saying that it’s can still be within “show” to have snow up on the castle around Halloween since even parts of Europe get snow around the same time. But really it doesn't get its fully snow covering until after Halloween most years. So my point is that a little dusting of snow on the castle isn't out of "show" for the time period.

Anyways, yes Disney could hire more crews, spend more money, and likely get everything up in a few days if they really wanted to. But we all know that isn't going to happen unless there is some monetary motivation for them to do that. So we can assume that the expense to do that isn't offset enough by any profit they many have gained from a few extra days of the seasonal fair offerings for them to see its worth it.
↩ replying to Disney Irish
Or, it's a self-evident stretch. Sometimes there just isn't a viable alternative reason. We all know they put it up then because it's convenient for them to do it that way. The fact that Disney, to my knowledge, has never tried to even vaguely explain or acknowledge it publicly shows that they know there's no logical explanation for it other than their own timetable.

They're not going to give you brownies for twisting logic into knots defending their every decision.
↩ replying to PiratesMansion
I'm not looking for brownie points, Disney couldn't care less what you, I, or anyone else here thinks about it.

Also there doesn't need to be a Disney specific explanation, fans make up their own head canon for the Parks all the time. And in my head canon for the Parks it works as I personally have experienced snow during Halloween time. If it doesn't work for your personal head canon, then so be it.