Magic Kingdom is widely considered the Christmas park at Walt Disney World. This guide to the holiday season at MK covers decorations, ride overlays and entertainment in November and December 2025. Here are our recommendations for making the most of your time, dates to visit & avoid, and special dates during which you can see the special parade & fireworks for “free.”
As mentioned above, Magic Kingdom is a highly popular park during the holiday season. It enjoys a reputation as the park that best gets into the spirit of the season among guests. However, we’d argue that’s a bit deceptive. Although Magic Kingdom is home to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, which is Walt Disney World’s flagship holiday special event…it is a special event. Meaning it’s not included with admission.
Meaning that if you don’t splurge for event tickets, costing $170 to $230 per person, you are missing the majority of what Magic Kingdom offers at Christmas. And even if you do want to attend MVMCP, you may not be able to do so! As of publication, the entire month of November 2025 is already sold out of party tickets, with only a couple week stretch in December remaining.
Magic Kingdom’s holiday season offerings beyond the Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party special event are fairly minor and, arguably, superficial. The castle park makes a strong first impression with Main Street USA, but there’s not a ton after that.
We’ve argued elsewhere that Animal Kingdom is Walt Disney World’s holiday hidden gem, and honestly, we enjoy the included-with-admission Christmas offerings there more. Then there’s the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays, which has a later start date, but is hugely popular with diehard Walt Disney World fans–and for good reason.
The case could thus be made that Magic Kingdom is Walt Disney World’s third-best park for Christmas, at least when judging its regular daily offerings for most of November and December. Even Disney’s Hollywood Studios has its moments with the charming mid-century decor around Echo Lake, Sunset Season’s Greetings, Minnie’s Holiday Dine, and more.
Now for the good news! There’s still a lot you can enjoy at Magic Kingdom during a normal day in the park, from an attraction overlay to entertainment, decorations, food, merchandise, and more. Magic Kingdom is no slouch during Christmas, it just enjoys a bit of an outdated reputation based on its extinct holiday offerings.
At the same time, it overshadows Animal Kingdom, which has come into its own in recent years. Point being, Magic Kingdom is unlike Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and other castle parks around the world, all of which include Christmas entertainment with regular admission. And if you’re only doing 1-day at Walt Disney World this Christmas, maybe consider Animal Kingdom as the sleeper pick!
For a more comprehensive overview of the holiday season as a whole, check out our Ultimate Guide to Christmas at Walt Disney World. That covers all of the parks, including Magic Kingdom, plus the resort hotels, Disney Springs, and both of the hard ticket holiday season events (MVMCP and Jollywood Nights Christmas Party at Disney’s Hollywood Studios).
With all of that out of the way, let’s dig into the details of Christmas 2025 at Magic Kingdom…
Christmas Dates at Magic Kingdom
Officially, the holiday season starts on November 14, 2025 at Walt Disney World. However, this mostly applies to the other three theme parks, Disney Springs, and resort hotels.
Unofficially, you’ll start hearing the sounds and seeing the sights of Christmas much earlier. In fact, if you visited Magic Kingdom today, you would already be able to see all of the decorations and even enjoy a lot of entertainment! (See below for some exciting 2025 news about holiday overlays.)
This is because the first Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom will be held on Friday, November 7, 2025. In order to prepare for that, the holiday season quietly starts earlier at Magic Kingdom.
Unofficially, the festivities will wind down the first week of January 2026, with Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend (January 7-11, 2026) being when the holiday season wraps up and decorations start coming down. Before that, most substantive holiday offerings will end on December 31, 2025.
Jingle Cruise
The Jingle Cruise overlay consists of decorations in the show scenes and a special spiel from the skippers, who are “homesick” and wanting to celebrate Christmas. The queue is decorated and the boats receive Christmas-inspired names. While holiday overlays are divisive, we are big fans of the idea here. Jingle Cruise is generally well done.
Jingle Cruise is an all-day, every day attraction for regular guests and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party attendees. Starting in early November, experience this wild attraction wrapped with festive jokes and even more fun memories, something guests of all ages look forward to every year.
Jingle Cruise is more popular than the normal version of the ride, so prioritizing it in your touring plan can be a good idea (see our 1-Day Magic Kingdom Itinerary for more recommendations). Lightning Lane Multi-Pass can also be a good idea. However, we prefer doing Jingle Cruise at night to get the full experience of the Christmas lights turned on. If you go late enough, the line isn’t usually too bad.
Jingle Cruise started on November 3, 2025 and will likely run through January 2, 2026.
“Frozen Holiday Surprise”
“Frozen Holiday Surprise” is hosted by Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and the adorable Snowgies in front of Cinderella Castle. During this brief stage show, friends from Arendelle ring in the season together and help transform Cinderella Castle into a shimmering crystalized palace – projections that remain throughout the evening.
Some words of warning here: “Frozen Holiday Surprise” draws a massive crowd, which is in part based on its longstanding reputation from 2019 and earlier. Based on the crowd alone, you might be under the mistaken impression that this is a large scale production. We’d advise to keep your expectations in check.
The previous version of the Frozen lighting show that was performed with the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights was far superior. We still miss the Dream Lights, which were the most spectacular Christmas light display at Walt Disney World. Elsa lighting these icicles on Cinderella Castle was pure magic, and without that, “Frozen Holiday Surprise” is comparatively anticlimactic.
“Frozen Holiday Surprise” can be seen during regular park hours and during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. As of publication time, the first performances are scheduled for 6:15 pm and 8:15 pm on November 7, 2025. That’s the first MVMCP night.
Usually, “Frozen Holiday Surprise” quietly debuts a couple of days earlier even if it’s not on the schedule as a ‘surprise and delight’ offering for guests. For most of the last several years, the show has been shown 2-3 days before the first MVMCP. The first party this year is on November 7, but we’d still expect a similar cadence–meaning “Frozen Holiday Surprise” should start showing sometime between November 4th and 6th.
Or not. With Christmas not officially starting until November 14th, perhaps Walt Disney World will determine that “Frozen Holiday Surprise” doesn’t need to begin for day guests until later.
Christmas Decorations in Magic Kingdom
One of the common misconceptions about Walt Disney World and the holiday season is that all of the decorations appear overnight, all at once. There are a variety of reasons why this is a persistent urban legend. For one thing, it used to be true. Back when Walt Disney World was just two theme parks and a few resorts, the Holiday Services team did almost everything overnight.
Second, because Walt Disney World occasionally still releases time-lapse videos showing the transformation of Main Street USA from Halloween to Christmas. That does occur overnight–but even that now it actually takes two nights, not just one.
Part of the reason the holiday season starts earlier at Magic Kingdom is a matter of practicality. It’s easier to put Christmas decorations up while taking Halloween decor down, using the same infrastructure and resources. As a result, decorating for Christmas almost always occurs the first 2-3 days of November.
This, most decorations went up overnight on November 2nd and the Christmas tree was up by November 3rd. There were a few lingering decorations to install after that, but Magic Kingdom was 95% finished by the 3rd. This is close to consistent with past precedent.
The park is almost always fully decked out by November 4th, depending on the last night of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and a couple other variables. The start date of the holiday season as a whole has no bearing on when Magic Kingdom is decorated–it’s always the first few days of November.
For reference, last year’s decorations didn’t come down until January 15, 2025 in Magic Kingdom. This is slightly later than normal, but it’s due to the WDW Marathon occurring almost a full week late. Next year, we’d expect decorations to come down a tad earlier in January 2026.
Best & Worst Dates to Visit Magic Kingdom for Christmas
November and December are roller coaster months for crowds, with the weeks around holidays (Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve) seeing elevated attendance and other weeks being more moderate. Accordingly, much of November and December 2025 will have elevated crowd levels due to those holidays and school breaks.
Fortunately, there are also pockets of low crowd weeks that are ‘sweet spots’ for holiday time trips. Basically, these two months have very high highs–but also low lows. Check out our list of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025 & 2026. That includes several weeks in November and December. In fact, most weeks make one of those lists or the other!
You can also read more about crowd forecasts in our November 2025 Walt Disney World Crowd Calendar and December 2025 Walt Disney World Crowd Calendar. (Frankly, the best & worst weeks list is a more useful resource, though!)
We’d also advise being mindful of Magic Kingdom’s operating hours. There are many early closings, but there are also earlier openings that present strategic opportunities. If you have the chance to visit on an 8 am opening day (as opposed to 9 am), do it.
These 8 am rope drops mean that Early Entry starts at 7:30 am, which is huge. Look no further than our new field testing: Magic Kingdom’s Extra Early Entry is a Must-Do for Low Waits at Disney World’s Biggest Rides!
The strategic advantage offered by 7:30 am Early Entry is immense, especially on days that will be busier (8 am to 11 pm park hours are an indication of heavier attendance forecasts). These 8 am rope drops and 7:30 am Early Entry are your secret weapon to knocking out as much as possible without paying extra for Lightning Lanes!
The other upside to the 8 am openings is that they often occur on days when the park closes at 6 pm as an ‘olive branch’ of sorts to guests, so they’re less likely to skip the party-shortened days at Magic Kingdom. If at all possible, we strongly recommend visiting Magic Kingdom during the day on MVMCP nights.
Expect party-shortened days at Magic Kingdom have 2/10 or so crowd levels in November and December. By contrast, most of the 9 am to 10 pm days will have 5/10 crowds, and any day with even longer hours is likely to have 7/10 or above crowd levels.
This is something we’ve covered at length, again and again. See Best & Worst Days to Do Magic Kingdom in 2025 for a rundown of when crowds will be especially good or bad, including a handful of ‘red flag’ dates to avoid at all costs this month through December.
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
As mentioned above, this fan-favorite special event requires separate admission from your normal park tickets. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party features all things Christmas, and occurs on select nights from November 7 through December 21, 2025.
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is a major event with a lot of offerings. It’s also beyond the scope of this post, which focuses on daily operations in Magic Kingdom. For more information about MVMCP, read our Guide to the 2025 Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
For whatever it’s worth, we love Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and highly recommend it to anyone who has never experienced it. Yes, tickets are pricey, but it’s worth the splurge for first-timers–cut elsewhere from your vacation budget, if necessary. Of course, assuming that MVMCP tickets are still available for your dates.
Although most of the seasonal treats at Magic Kingdom are MVMCP-exclusive, some are available all day. See the Food Guide to 2025 Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party & Holiday Season at Magic Kingdom.
Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks
As the name suggests, this nighttime spectacular is hosted by Minnie Mouse, celebrating the magic of Christmas with medleys of beloved holiday songs. Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks is not to be missed.
The fireworks feature “Wonderful Christmas Time” by Paul McCartney and other favorites. Projection mapping also features heavily, with the end result being that Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks evokes heartfelt moments of home and family, and the spirit of the season before an incredible finale.
Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks is one of the marquee MVMCP entertainment offerings. However, it’s also shown for “free” during select dates during the holiday season.
Here’s the 2025 fireworks schedule:
- Now Through December 20, 2025 (Non-Party Nights): Happily Ever After at 9:00 pm
- November 7 through December 21, 2025 (Party Nights): Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks presented at 10:00 pm exclusively for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party guests.
- December 22-29, 2025: Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks replaces Happily Ever After and will be shown nightly at 8:30 pm for all Magic Kingdom guests.
- December 30-31, 2025: Fantasy in the Sky fireworks presented at 7:30 pm and 11:50 pm for all Magic Kingdom guests.
- Starting January 1, 2026: Happily Ever After at 9:00 pm.
We’d highly recommend consulting our Best Magic Kingdom Fireworks Viewing Locations when it comes to picking a spot for watching Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime. Or Happily Ever After, for that matter.
Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmastime Parade
It’s a similar story with Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmastime Parade. This is a marquee MVMCP offering that’s also typically performed during daily ops from the week leading up to Christmas through New Year’s Eve.
Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmastime Parade includes dancing gingerbread men, ballroom dancers, marching toy soldiers, catchy holiday music, and scents to put you in the festive spirit.
MOUACP features many Disney characters dressed in their holiday attire before the parade concludes with a special appearance by Santa Claus as he wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
During MVMCP, we strongly recommend watching MOUACP on Main Street for full effect. During the Christmas and New Year’s weeks, you can watch it from anywhere along its route without much of a difference in the experience.
The floats are very cute, the music is catchy, and there’s a wide range of Disney and Christmas-y characters featured. Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmastime Parade is a must-see if you’re visiting the peak weeks of the holiday season.
Speaking of parades, you can expect the new Disney Starlight Night Parade to be shown twice each evening on dates when Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is not held. Due to MVMCP occurring multiple times per week in November and December, expect the parade route to be packed with people. See our rundown of the Best Starlight Night Parade Viewing Spots & Tips to Beat Magic Kingdom’s Massive Crowds!
Special Days to Visit Magic Kingdom at Christmas
Let’s go in order. The first set of dates is actually before the holiday season officially starts: November 8-9, 2025. Although not yet officially confirmed, the best opportunity for seeing “free” MVMCP entertainment is coming up over Jersey Week/Veterans Day weekend. See My Favorite Days at Magic Kingdom: See Mickey’s Christmas Parade & More Entertainment for Free!
Following that, there’s December 22-29, 2025. During this set of dates, you’ll see the Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks and almost certainly (although unconfirmed for 2025) Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade.
There’s also a possibility that the Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration stage show is performed during daily ops on these dates. Both the parade and the stage show, if shown, would occur from December 22 until December 31, 2025.
On December 30th and New Year’s Eve, there’s typically special entertainment at the Magic Kingdom (in addition to the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks mentioned above).
If you are thinking of visiting for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we highly recommend reading our Tips for Visiting Walt Disney World at New Year’s to avoid crowds and have a better experience.
Although the entertainment is “free,” there are air quotes around that because you’re paying in higher overall travel costs and with crowds. There’s no such thing as a free lunch at Walt Disney World!
Ultimately, we love Christmas at Magic Kingdom. We started this guide out being a bit of debbie downers about the holiday season at Walt Disney World’s flagship castle park, but that’s mostly in order to set (or reset) expectations. There is a lot of hype for the holidays at Magic Kingdom, but that’s based on a mix of the marquee Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (which costs extra) and years past, when the park used to offer more during the holidays.
Nevertheless, the holiday season is still our absolute favorite time of year in Walt Disney World. November and December offer a mix of perfect weather, entertainment, festive decorations, great holiday snacks, and so much more. If you’re only going to visit WDW once, make it during Christmas-time!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Magic Kingdom at Christmas? Is it still Walt Disney World’s best park for the holiday season festivities, or is it surpassed by Animal Kingdom or EPCOT? Any questions we can help you answer? Agree or disagree with our assessment of MK at Xmas? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!