{"id":114572,"date":"2025-12-31T04:57:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T04:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/114572\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T04:57:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T04:57:32","slug":"disneyland-is-already-making-plans-for-the-2026-christmas-holiday-season-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/114572\/","title":{"rendered":"Disneyland is already making plans for the 2026 Christmas holiday season \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The calendar may still say December 2025, but Disneyland<\/a> is already making plans for the Christmas 2026 season with a familiar holiday lineup of parades, fireworks and live music with some new food options and character costumes.<\/p>\n

The 2026-27 winter holiday season will return to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure from Nov. 18, 2026 through early January 2027.<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE: Disneyland 2026: All the seasonal events, food festivals and late night parties<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s never too early to start planning for next Christmas \u2014 especially since the winter holiday season has become one of the busiest times of the year at the Disney parks.<\/p>\n

Of course, you\u2019ve still got a little time left to enjoy this year\u2019s winter holiday season, which runs through Jan. 7.<\/p>\n

\"VisitorsVisitors to Disneyland watch A Christmas Fantasy Parade near Sleeping Beauty Castle in 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\u00a0<\/p>\n

So far, Disneyland has confirmed that holiday decor, live entertainment and seasonal foods will return to both parks in winter 2026 along with the Disney Festival of Holidays at Disney California Adventure.<\/p>\n

Disney chefs always cook up a new menu lineup for DCA\u2019s annual Festival of the Holidays food festival.<\/p>\n

While details remain scarce at the moment, Disneyland tends to lather, rinse and repeat when it comes to the holidays.<\/p>\n

\"MainMain Street U.S.A. is lit up for the holidays during Disney Merriest Nites at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Tuesday, November 16, 2021. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you can expect if the 2026-27 holiday season is anything like the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

The entertainment lineup has been fairly locked in for the past few decades at Disneyland with A Christmas Fantasy parade and the \u201cBelieve in Holiday Magic\u201d fireworks show returning every holiday season.<\/p>\n

DCA has freshened up the holidays a bit more in recent years with the Viva Navidad Street Party, \u201cMirabel\u2019s Gifts of the Season\u201d featuring Encanto characters and \u201cA Musical Christmas\u201d starring Coco characters.<\/p>\n

\"It'sIt\u2019s a Small World is decorated for the holidays in Fantasyland during Disney Merriest Nites at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Tuesday, November 16, 2021. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Haunted Mansion and It\u2019s a Small World in Disneyland and Mater\u2019s Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi\u2019s Rollickin Roadsters in DCA will almost certainly return again in holiday overlay mode.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Disneyland\u2019s Fantasyland Theatre has hosted craft-making, sing-alongs and photo opportunities with characters in seasonal costumes.<\/p>\n

Downtown Disney usually has live music and nightly \u201csnoap\u201d snowfall on the stage next to the Parkside Market.<\/p>\n

Santa Claus is a pretty busy guy \u2014 making stops at Disneyland\u2019s Fantasyland Theatre, DCA\u2019s Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, Disney\u2019s Grand Californian Hotel, Pixar Place Hotel and Disneyland Hotel.<\/p>\n

\"RouteRoute 66 in Cars Land is decked out for the holidays at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the few things that consistently change each holiday season are the costumes worn by Mickey, Minnie and their pals during character dining experiences at the Storytellers Cafe in Disney\u2019s Grand Californian Hotel.<\/p>\n

Disneyland has not yet announced an end date for the 2026-27 winter holiday season.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, Disneyland has ended the holiday season somewhere between Jan. 6 and Jan. 9 depending on how the dates fall on the calendar.<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE:\u00a0Disney\u2019s Lunar New Year 2026 festival returns with food, music and Horace Horsecollar<\/a><\/p>\n

Disneyland typically ends the holiday season on the first Sunday in January, unless that date falls between Jan. 1-5.<\/p>\n

Based on recent history, expect Disneyland\u2019s 2026-27 winter holiday season to end on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The calendar may still say December 2025, but Disneyland is already making plans for the Christmas 2026 season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,8,9479,1341,967,21447,21448,2646,181,1338,100,11379,1340,420,2422],"class_list":["post-114572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-christmas","tag-disneyland","tag-entertainment","tag-family-travel","tag-holiday-travel","tag-holidays","tag-latest-headlines","tag-morning-wire","tag-news","tag-southern-california-travel","tag-theme-parks","tag-things-to-do","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}