Walt Disney World has updated the calendar for Christmas 2025, confirming that guests visiting Magic Kingdom during the heart of the holiday season will be able to enjoy “free” fireworks from Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party without paying for separate admission to the hard ticket event! This post shares dates & details for Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks and more entertainment for “free.”
Before we get started, I want to note a couple of things. First, the best time 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!
The title there says it all–those are two of my favorite days of the entire year at Magic Kingdom. I’ve gone to the park over that weekend for each of the last two years, and have had a fantastic time. Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks is not part of that, so it’s a bit different, but it’s even better than what we’re covering today.
Today’s news is that Walt Disney World has confirmed that Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks will once again be shown for “free” to all Magic Kingdom guests during the heart of the holiday season. The show begins its public run on December 22 2025, just in time for the peak week starting in the lead-up to Christmas, and running through New Year’s Eve.
Along with Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks, it’s a near-certainty that Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade will be shown during regular Magic Kingdom park hours from Monday, December 22 through December 31, 2025. The parade schedule hasn’t been updated yet for December, though.
The multiple air quotes around free are due to the practical reality that you’re paying a significant premium to visit the park on these days, which are far and away the most expensive of the year.
As we recently reported, Walt Disney World ticket prices hit a new record during those dates, breaking the $200 barrier at three of the four parks. (Spoiler alert: Magic Kingdom has the most expensive admission of all, peaking at $209!)
It’s not just tickets. If you’re visiting on or after December 22nd, you’ll be paying the highest prices of the year for hotels, Lightning Lanes, and everything else that has date-based pricing. I’d hazard a guess that you’ll pay more for airfare, rental cars, and other trip components that aren’t booking directed via Disney.
In fact, there’s a very good chance that you would come out ahead booking a trip November 17-21, 2025, paying lower ticket prices and hotel rates, while adding on tickets to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
In which case, you could say you’re getting “free” cookies and hot cocoa with MVMCP event admission. The lesson here is either that free is a powerful marketing term, or that “included with admission” is the more accurate phrasing. But I digress.
While we’re on the topic, it’s worth addressing the bigger picture fireworks schedule for Magic Kingdom in the coming months, as it has a bunch of quirks…
Magic Kingdom Fireworks Schedule Changes
- 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’re still not 100% confident that this is the final calendar for a couple of reasons.
Last week, Walt Disney World Finally Added Starlight Night Parade Showtimes for the Holidays. We had expected those hours to differ from the current performance schedule since the new times pick up right as Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, November 2, 2025.
Anyone who is familiar with the Farmers’ Almanac or whatever knows that sunset times change, moving earlier in the fall and winter. This usually triggers showtime changes for the Magic Kingdom fireworks. Usually as in every single year.
Last year, it meant Happily Ever After moving forward to 8:30 pm in late October. One week later, Happily Ever After moved forward to 8 pm and stayed in that time slot until DST started again in March. Happily Ever After has followed this performance cadence in the winter for as long as we can remember.
And for what it’s worth, that was also true when night parades were being performed in the past. If we went back in time to November 3, 2015, we’d see showtimes of 7 pm and 9 pm for Main Street Electrical Parade and 8 pm for Wishes. I was sure that Walt Disney World would do the same thing this year with Starlight.
Suffice to say, there are several reasons for Happily Ever After and Starlight showtimes to all move forward–or alternatively, to spread out showtimes, increasing the gap between the fireworks and second parade to 90 minutes. I’ve already discussed those at length here, so I’m not going to rehash all of that here.
The bottom line is that Happily Ever After showtimes might still shift forward to 8:30 pm or 8 pm in November and December. That schedule is not set in stone. If you’re visiting during the holiday season, we’d advise checking back closer to your travel dates.
The other bit of uncertainty concerns the end of the Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks.
Current showtimes have this “free” to all day guests starting on December 22, 2025. That is almost certainly accurate. This part happens year in and year out, and has for at least the two decades that we’ve been visiting Walt Disney World as adults (previously with Holiday Wishes). This is more confirmation of what was widely expecting than a major, newsworthy announcement.
The question mark is more when Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks will end. Walt Disney World has now released the December 30-31, 2025 showtimes, and those indicate that Fantasy in the Sky will be presented 4 times across those two nights. It’s normal for Fantasy in the Sky to be presented both nights, so that’s consistent with past precedent.
What used to happen is that Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks (and Holiday Wishes before it) would be presented at the earlier ~7 pm showtime. That changed last year–or at least, the announcement reflected that Fantasy in the Sky would be shown at the earlier time.
We spent New Year’s Eve at Disneyland, so we didn’t see the Magic Kingdom fireworks firsthand, but I haven’t found any confirmation as to what was performed at the earlier showtime on those two dates. In all likelihood, it was Fantasy in the Sky. But sometimes (oftentimes), the showtimes calendar is wrong. It would be quite the coincidence for it to be wrong two consecutive years…but stranger things have happened!
There are other minor details that have not yet been confirmed, such as whether Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks will be presented with the perimeter bursts starting December 22nd, but we won’t have answers to any of that until that night rolls around and the Christmas entertainment is included as part of daily ops.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks, this is a new-ish nighttime spectacular (it’s over 5 years old, but still the most recent addition to Magic Kingdom’s seldom-changing holiday entertainment programming) that replaced fan-favorite Holiday Wishes.
The newer fireworks feature “Wonderful Christmas Time” by Paul McCartney and also includes “Joy to the World,” “Deck the Halls,” “Up on the House Top,” “We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” 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.
While longtime fans might argue that this show is inferior to Holiday Wishes in some ways, it’s good enough. Like the song “Wonderful Christmastime,” it’s schmaltzy and silly. My unpopular opinion about both the fireworks and the song is that they’re good, actually. But I know there are plenty of haters out there.
Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks has grown on me with each passing year. Don’t get me wrong–I’d still take a modernized Holiday Wishes over it without hesitation–but I’m developing nostalgia and sentimentality for the show, which is precisely the point. Give it another few years, and Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks will be a beloved favorite that the current generation of fans won’t want to let go.
When it comes to viewing the Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks (or any Magic Kingdom nighttime spectacular, for that matter), Main Street is always going to be the most popular and safest choice. As someone who has seen this fireworks show many times from MSUSA, I don’t think that’s as necessary for Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime as it is for other fireworks. There are projections, sure, but they’re not essential. There’s also no low-level element like Jack Skellington in the Halloween show.
Consult our Best Magic Kingdom Fireworks Viewing Locations when it comes to picking a spot for watching Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime. Given the crowds, we’d recommend opting for Fantasyland. To each their own, but that’s the lower-stakes, lower-stress viewing option during this peak week, and there’s something to be said for being immersed in the fireworks, especially if the perimeter pyro is included.
Speaking of crowds, we already noted above that this is the most expensive week of the year. Adding insult to injury, it’s also the busiest week-plus of the entire year, every single year. And by a wide margin. The crowd calendar should go to 11/10 specifically for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, because that period is so far above a normal 10/10 that it skews the scale.
If you plan on trying to see Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks or Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade that week, we’d recommend staking out spots early (or better yet, being comfortable seeing the entertainment from more ‘relaxed’ locations as opposed to prime ones) and packing your patience. (For more, see our lists of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025, 2026 & 2027.)
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
Will you be trying to catch Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade or Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks for “free” starting on December 22, 2025? Have you watched the Christmas parade or fireworks during daily ops in the lead-up to Christmas and New Year’s Eve? What was your experience? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!