Christmas Day at Disneyland
You plan and dream of Christmas Day at Disneyland! What could be more special?!?! Right?!?! It is special but there are things you need to be aware of.
On the positive side there is no place so well decorated and immersed in the Christmas spirit as Disneyland. There is Christmas music being played all throughout the park, both live and recorded. There is a fantastic Christmas Parade and just a wonderful place for family fun.
On the negative side there are the crowds. The crowds are heaver on Christmas Day than they are during the summer. The lines are long for everything including the bathroom. If you want to see the parade make sure you get there early or you will be hard pressed to see it. If you want to see the fireworks from in front of the castle (the best view in my opinion) you will need to sit down no later than 3 in the afternoon for the 9:30 fireworks. Even then you may not be the first sitting down waiting for the fireworks! This is especially true if you have young children or are a little person, like me!
Don't let the negative comments about the crowds keep you from going if that is where you wish to go! As long as you keep the "Christmas Spirit" and understand before going that you will be in the crowds you can enjoy. Don't become so set on goals you ruin the day if you don't get to something. Have realistic expectations for the day and you will be fine.
My suggestion is let each person in your group pick one special must do item. Then have them pick a second. Do what you can to get to everybody's first choice then see how many of the second choices you can get to. Remember the goal is to spend time together as a family celebrating Christmas and not going for a record ride count.
Make reservations for meals at the sit down restaurants and pick off hours times for it. Here is the number to make dinning reservations at Disneyland (714) 781-DINE or (714) 781-3463. At all times of year reservations can be made up to 60 days in advance. Eat lunch before 11am or after 1pm. Dinner should be early as well or plan on eating outside the park on the way home. Snack to get through the evening. It helps if you bring your, drinks, snacks and/or maybe one meal with you. It helps save money and keeps you out some of the long lines.
If your must do is the Fireworks or Fantasmic sit down early and take turns taking the kids on rides or walking around. It only takes one person to hold your spots. You can bring back food and eat dinner where you are planning to stay for the fireworks or Fantasmic. Another way to make sure you see the fireworks or Fantasmic without having to sit there for hours is purchase a dining plan with VIP seating. You can show up an hour or so before the show and get a decent seat in the VIP area. Even later there will be some good seats in the VIP area.
If you will be at DCA it will be less crowded but there will be a crowd. World of Color will be packed so make sure you make plans to get a ticket to view it early in the day or purchase one of the three dining plans. The dining plans range in price from $16 to $45 or so.
One thing you can do crowds or no crowds is enjoy the decorations. Just walk around and look at the beauty! After dark make sure you take the time to see the lights!
From mid November to the first weekend in January Santa is there to talk to the kids and take pictures. Until Christmas Eve Santa is in his traditional red suit. He is in his So. Calif. home at Santa's Reindeer Roundup. Christmas Day and after Santa is in a green plaid suit and you can still take the kids to see him. It is nice to take them there to say "thank you" for the gifts they got.
My Christmas book, An Angel Remembers 25 Voices of Christmas is out!!
You can find for all formats at
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94784
And for the Nook at
http://www.barnesandnoble.com
It is also available at the ITunes store for IPod, IPad and IPhone
It soon will be up at other sites such as Amazon
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