Holiday Magic at the Disney Parks: Celebrations Around the World from Fall to Winter

by Graham Allan, Rebecca Cline, Charles Price

This deluxe jacketed hardcover is visual storytelling at its best. Almost 1,900 photographs (two-thirds of them taken just for this book) showcase Disney's special menu offerings, decorating details from amazing artists and designers, and the most significant historical holiday events.

A harmonic trio of researchers, writers, and photographers logged more than 180,000 miles visiting every Disney park and resort across the globe, personally documenting the holiday installations through eighty thousand photographs and, wherever possible, meeting the talented and endlessly passionate artisans behind it all.

With twelve theme parks and dozens of resort hotels, plus numerous cruise ships, dining and shopping districts, and more than six decades of holiday experiences, there are a lot of pumpkin treatments and ornate trees to reflect upon. (The smallest holiday tree at a Disney property is just four inches high, while the very tallest reaches up to seventy feet.) And each decoration is chosen carefully to fit within a story and is expertly placed on its tree or garland by craftspeople backstage. The decor is installed onstage, maintained, and, ultimately, disassembled by technicians before it is once again cleaned, prepared, and stored in vast warehouses. . .till next year's event. The stories and contributions from so many unsung Cast Members (often hard at work at hours of the night when others are asleep) fill these pages, along with the joys of Halloween, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year celebrations. Time to join the party!

Searching for that perfect gift for the Disney theme park fan in your life? Explore more archival-quality books from Disney Editions:

The Disney Monorail: Imagineering a Highway in the Sky
Walt Disney's Ultimate Inventor: The Genius of Ub Iwerks
One Day at Disney: Meet the People Who Make the Magic Across the Globe
Marc Davis in His Own Words: Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks
Yesterday's Tomorrow: Disney's Magical Mid-Century
Eat Like Walt: The Wonderful World of Disney Food
Maps of the Disney Parks: Charting 60 Years from California to Shanghai
The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic
Poster Art of the Disney Parks

Genres: Nonfiction, Christmas, Holiday, Halloween, Travel, Coffee Table Books

384 pages, Hardcover

Published October 20, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

As a leader in the digital transformations of the motion picture and television businesses and as an advocate for the care and preservation of its past, Graham has enjoyed many opportunities to expand the reach of Disney’s amazing creative legacy. By day, he is in the production of animation and visual effects, digital media, intellectual property technologies, and the development of new consumer experiences. And after hours, he is a writer for Disney twenty-three magazine and the D23 web site and a speaker at fan events such as the D23 Expo. He has also produced numerous Disney Parks and Resorts scavenger hunts and trivia challenges, both for Cast Members and fans

Through a keen passion for travel and photography, Graham has notched up more than two and half million miles in the air to explore some of the world's greatest natural beauty, rarest wildlife and most vibrant cities.

Reviews

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done and much more than I expected, this impressive tome reveals and showcases Disney's grand-scale holiday decorations throughout their grounds, parks, hotels, costumes, parades, cruise ships, merchandise, and food. Or in other words, pretty much everywhere! The attention to detail and the dramatic over-the-top theming appeals to Disney fans both young and old, with many visiting the parks during the last months of the year specifically for the holiday magic.

On my first perusal, I was drawn to the pictures and the details within them, but I will be going back to read the text and be drawn in to the pictures again as well. There's so much to pore over that I expect the actual reading of this to take months!

A visual delight that is sure to please devoted Disney park guests, and may even wow everyone else too!

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is heavier and bigger than expected. The pictures are great and every Disney fan should have it Especially those who love their Holidays.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75/5

[Sesana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much more than I was expecting. There are literally hundreds of photos covering Halloween and Christmas celebrations at every Disney park, and I expected those. I also expected that those photos would be all be contemporary, showing only what you could reasonably expect to see at a Disney holiday today. Happily, that's not the case. Instead, this book attempts to do fairly complete histories of how Disney has celebrated Halloween and Christmas (ok, and Thanksgiving and New Year) since before Disneyland was a thing, with tons of archival photos. And it's exhaustive, with chapters covering the parks, the hotels, shows, overlays, and the hard ticketed events. No wonder it's nearly 400 pages. Obviously intended for hardcore Disney parks fans, but worth looking at for pretty pictures even if you just like holiday decorations.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very much appreciated, especially this year. I got to see all my favorite holiday traditions in one place. Although I'm sad I won't get to experience them this year, I did enjoy reading how they got started and have changed over the years. Plus the pictures, this book is worth it for the pictures alone.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this book was divided by park. Other than that, this book was super interesting. My biggest question, where do they store all the decorations, especially the really HUGE ones.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halloween, Christmas, New Year's and Fall through Winter Holidays combine in this amazing coffee read size book. Featuring over a 1,000 photos, the book regales us with the holiday events, shows, parades, firework displays, foods/treats/beverages and mostly, the decoration/ambiance of the Disney Parks for the Holidays. The book is told by three authors: a Disney Archivist, a Writer for Disney, and A Photographer, combining tales of each of Disney Theme Parks around the world and the Cruise Line, to share a behind-the-scenes and onstage look at the Holidays at Disney.
This book is a great one for Disney Park fans, travelers, Event Planners, Party Planners, Parks and Rec to draw ideas and inspiration from and adults who had visited in the past or even those who have never been will appreciate the wonderful photographs of the past and up to 2019 visuals of the parks and the magic of the Holidays at Disney. Happy Holidays!

[Glenn Welch · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want photos of Disney's Halloween and Christmas decorations in the theme parks, you will absolutely get that in this book. The problem I have is that I was expecting more behind-the-scenes photos about how the decorations are prepared and more of an explanation and description about the decorations. Instead, this is just chock-full of photos, which becomes overwhelming and everything gets lost and becomes a blur.

[Joanna Warrens · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a year of no Disney trips for me this was a perfect gift. The holiday decorations are beautiful. Maybe 2021 will be year I see them in person. Meanwhile picture me by the Christmas tree dreaming of the future.

[Sw33t_heart89 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book !!

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This large coffee table book tells the story of all the decorating Disney does in all of its parks and ships. With lots of beautiful pictures.

[Jen Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stunning! I adore the decorations of the Disney parks!

[Traci · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful photography that will make any Disney lover smile. This book focuses on the history and photo journalism of the fall and winter holidays as they are celebrated around the world. The photography is wonderful and the reader truly gets a sense of the magic and the stories behind making the different holidays shine in the parks

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through short essays and many, many photographs, this large volume shows the holiday decorations used in the Disney parks. It also addresses historical events, themed foods, flower beds and baskets, fireworks displays, and even some behind the scenes views of the night time assembling, vast warehouses for storage, and the people who work to make the “magic” happen.

[Leanne Rainwater · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many great pictures & stories throughout this book - I really enjoyed it!

[K. Marie Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE every page

[Ann Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Disney! Love all of the beautiful pictures in this book! Makes me happy just looking through all of the pages.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading about the seasons over the years, along with many photos spanning decades.

[Leona Bucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing.