Oo As noted per my last post, I was at California Adventure Park and Disneyland with the family for Christmas Eve. My sister is an annual passholder so she is able to guide us everywhere and tell us the priority of where to go and what to do- thanks so much to our activities coordinator J!

The decorations in Disneyland included this gigantically tall tree full of huge ornaments that were in a red and green and gold theme. And, check out the awesome caramel apples they offer, which include some special decorated ones for the holidays. I admit I have this problem where I don’t usually eat fruit unless it is all cut up (who knows if there is a bug inside- I’ve seen a spider inside a strawberry before!), so I did not have any interest in purchasing one, but that doesn’t mean I can’t admire the artistry here. Also, these apples are humongous, they are as big as two of my fists together, and probably weigh a lot. I’m not sure how you can even eat these with just teeth!

For the holiday season, Disney changed the Haunted Mansion to be themed towards Nightmare Before Christmas, including a room that smells like gingerbread, mmm. You can FastPass this attraction, and so we grabbed one and then waited in line for 20 minutes, got through, and then rode it again 20 minutes later after we got out. Just outside the mansion not only were there the characters of Jack and Sally posing for photos, but they had a little kiosk selling Nightmare Before Christmas themed items, one of which was an adorable little plushie of what looked like puppy Zero. It was in the hands of a small child with his family who were looking at it, and it was the only one I saw at the kiosk but I thought it might be uncouth to grab it. It was seriously adorable though.

And, it is totally worth waiting in line for It’s a Small World because what they do with this attraction for Christmas is a-ma-zing. No Fast Pass, but the line keeps moving to make you feel like you are making progress, it is fun people-watching as the line is outside so you can see all the passerbys (versus other attractions where the line goes into the attraction area more) and the clock opens up outside every 15 minutes for you to watch and there’s interesting manicured shrubbery in squares and animal shapes as well (my favorite was a lion shrub!). Inside for the holidays, they mix the normal It’s A Small World song with a variety of Christmas songs and really up the amount of all the eye candy of all the decorations. Hearing the singing of joyful children around the world in anticipation of the holiday is really heart-warming.

Didn’t I saw, a-mazing!!!!!?? The decorations in It’s a Small World! Holiday edition really are incredible, there’s so much going on you don’t really know where to look because there is something everywhere. You may even want to ride this twice so you can find all the Disney and Pixar characters interspersed throughout.

Both the attractions above are must-sees for December visits because of their holiday transformations, yes, definitely go even if you’ve seen the regular, non-holiday incarnations before. Each are 15 minutes long and are higher capacity rides so are worth the wait and while waiting the line keeps moving. And, walking along Main Street towards Sleeping Beauty’s castle was spectacular that evening. We missed the Believe in Holiday Magic fireworks spectacular at Disneyland because we had chosen the World of Color show at California Adventureland instead, thinking we would leave the parks after that since we had a full day arriving when the parks opened, but some other family members suddenly had a boost of endurance  and wanted to continue at California Adventureland. My sister and I ended up returning to Disneyland around 10:30ish so that I could see the castle  and we awwed at seeing various toon characters like Chip and Dale and Mickey and Minnie in their pjs.

Besides the blue traffic cone for soda that I purchased from Carsland, the only other souvenir I purchased was a “Glow with the Show” Mickey Ears hat. These hats have ears that light up and coordinates with the evening shows at Disneyland and California Adventure Park and which I left for her to “borrow” on her other visits next year. Again, thanks for all the planning J. I volunteered Oregon for next year, but it looks like it’ll be on the schedule for 2014.

I wonder what I’ll do next Christmas… I thought Christmas in Hawaii was wondrous and probably couldn’t be beat, but a Christmas Eve in Disney was just as extraordinary, and it was magical.