Last time we went to Disney World for the week, we went during October & we went to the Halloween party. It was by far my favorite part of the week so I just knew that we needed to go to the Christmas party this time. I decided to buy tickets & surprise the kids so when we got back from Hollywood Studios, I gave them their Christmas presents:
I found mini Christmas stockings at Target that had Mickey & Minnie on them so I bought each of them a stocking & put their ticket inside along with some Disney & Christmas themed charms for their magic bands:
The park closed at 6:00 & opened at 7:00 for the party:
I was really hoping it would be a lighter crowd like we experienced last time, but it definitely wasn't light. In fact, it was really crowded. My sister & I ordered the kids matching outfits specifically for this night & as soon as we got there, we went straight to Candy Cane Garden to see Santa:
I kept saying "All I want is a good Santa picture!" That way we didn't have to go see him again when we got home. And I was hoping to see him before the line got too long or before their outfits got dirty. Luckily my family obliged & we all took Santa pics:
Then we walked over & saw Mickey Mouse because who can go to Disney & not see Mickey?! We let Max see him first because that is his all time favorite:
I have so many cute photos of Max & Mickey but I am waiting to let Natalie post those since it is her family. But don't worry, we all took turns visiting with him:
We probably wasted a good hour waiting in lines to see Santa & Mickey & the guys were breaking down. Everyone was getting hungry so we headed straight to eat since we got the pictures we came to get. Luckily dinner was quiet because everyone was at the early parade so we snuck out & got in line to see Moana. Thankfully my friend just went to Disney the week before us & she told us that Moana only came out for the Christmas party & was located by the Jungle Cruise. Thank you Bethany for sharing that tidbit with us or we would have missed her! All 3 of the girls were excited to meet her:
They even met Heihei! Well, not really, but they digitally added him to the picture:
Natalie & I waited in line the entire time before we saw her but Bryan took turns taking the little ones to ride the magic carpet ride:
I had hoped the park would be less crowded so we would be able to ride more rides, but it wasn't. Eventually we made our way to Main Street so we could watch the fireworks:
In my opinion, it was worth the party just to see the holiday themed fireworks & parade. The firework show was set to Christmas music & the castle kept changing colors with each song. For instance, when they played Oh Christmas Tree, the castle turned green:
Most of us looked like this:
while others looked like this:
Apparently Sophie doesn't really like fireworks. We didn't really know that until this trip. When the fireworks ended, the castle looked Frozen again:
It was probably my favorite way to see it! After the fireworks, we found a new spot on the parade route to get comfortable:
Can you tell we went to the late parade at 11:00? A few of us were getting tired :) But everyone perked right up when the floats finally came by. It was by far my favorite part of the evening!
Of course the parade ended with Santa:
It was awesome! I used to love the electric parade but they don't do that anymore so this was a good replacement. I loved all of the Christmas music, lights & even smells! The park closed at midnight, but since the parade ended at 11:30, we thought we would take a chance on the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. That is the only ride that I couldn't get a fast pass for on Monday, so we ran to it & we were able to get on in 20 minutes. That is a miracle since it never had a wait of less than 2 hours:
Some other fun tidbits from the night - supposedly they pass out hot chocolate & Christmas cookies throughout the park, so my Dad & I went to find it while we waited for the parade. We didn't find hot chocolate, but we did find free sno cones! That and Christmas cookies were a fun addition to have while we waited:
It also snowed on Main Street which was pretty cool. Between the Christmas decorations & the Christmas music, I was in heaven :) But eventually we had to leave since it well after midnight. Both of our girls fell asleep on the walk out of the park while we waited for our shuttle:
By the time we got on the shuttle, all of the kids were dropping:
It was a really late night, in fact, I think the girls went to bed around 1:30. But it was worth it to try the Christmas party & meet Santa:
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