Early Christmas Spirit...
Even before Halloween, Christmas stuff stars showing up in the stores. Not that it puts you in the Christmas spirit... It's more or less annoying to see Christmas stuff that early. In the early days of yesteryear, you didn't see anything Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Then it slowly shifted to earlier and earlier in November. For a while November 1st was the starting point.
But I digress.... So, you want a little Christmas spirit early? There's always local events like Celebration of Lights displays. Numerous colorful Christmas displays and music to bring on holiday cheer weeks early.
For the intimate early holiday experience... well, there's only one place ... Disney World. Starting November 1st, Disney transforms overnight from Halloween to Christmas. Disney magic, and a ton of hard work from lots of cast members, changes the Magic Kingdom into a explosion of Christmas in every detail. Decorations, music, shows, parades, fireworks, and Christmas merchandise totally immersed you and all your senses into the feeling of Christmas time. It truly doesn't get any better than this. To avoid some of the largest crowds, I'd go early December... the closer to Christmas day, the bigger the crowds. Sensory overload with everything Christmas... kinda makes it so you don't want to leave. It's an experience not to be missed.
As cast members for years, we were able to go onto the parks every few days throughout November & December, making the Christmas magic last all the way to Christmas.
But there was one particular day when the Disney Magic of Christmas faded away rather abruptly. Right around this time if the year, Magic Kingdom, as well as Disneyland (and Epcot to a much lessor degree) go into production for the Disney Christmas Day Parade. We went into the park to see the parade and festivities being recorded. Not what we expected. We expected to see the shows and parades as seen on television on Christmas day. Well... It's a production filming. Segment upon segment, take after take... and restricted access. Main Street and the Castle Hub was basically shut down most if the day. The guest audience that you see on TV... VIP special pass only. When filming, only guests with VIP passes were allowed in filming areas. You could go into the stores on Main Street, but not the sidewalks. Viewing of the Castle Hub was from a distance, but you could still see some of the performers on stage. There really wasn't much to see anyway. Production segments... fragmented bits & pieces. The parade itself... there was no parade... just segments. The high school cheer groups were in Main Street for 3 hours, doing take after take, just for a few minutes on the actual Christmas Day show. Didn't seen like much fun for the kids... over, and over, and over. The VIP guest crowd having to look surprised and excited over and over for each segment taping... as the same segment was taped over & over to get the best take.
All in all, for us, being there on production day was disappointing. Interesting but disappointing. Lights, cameras, camera booms, breaks in between, restricted areas, detours... couldn't recommended going into MK on that day.
