Annual parade broadcast
| Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade |
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 The official logo for the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade used from 2009 to 2013. |
| Also known as | Disney Parks Magical Christmas Celebration |
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| Presented by | Various |
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| Country of origin | United States |
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| Original language | English/Spanish |
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| Production location | Walt Disney World |
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| Network | ABC (English)
Telemundo (Spanish) |
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| Release | 1983 (1983) –
present |
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The Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade is an American television special that airs on Christmas Day annually on ABC, airing live and taped, primarily inside the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, approximately one month prior to Christmas Day.
Past shows have included segments from the three other Walt Disney World theme parks (Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park), water parks and other entertainment areas, as well as the original Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park, and all the overseas Disney parks - Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland. Other segments of the annual broadcast included The Walt Disney Studios, Disney Adventures, Disney Institute and Disney Cruise Line. The program has aired annually since 1983, with exceptions in 2000 when Disney aired a Christmas Eve "Tracking Santa" special instead.
Description
The parade goes down Main Street, U.S.A. It features appearances of Disney characters, including Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Pluto, Scrooge McDuck, and Chip 'n Dale, as well as floats featuring celebrities, musical performances, marching bands from various schools and community groups across the USA, and highlights of events and properties at Disney theme parks and other Disney productions, in addition to those of the other components of the Walt Disney group (like Star Wars, Marvel Studios and Pixar) that are featured in the event. Like the Macy's Parade, it concludes with the arrival of Santa Claus and one of the most anticipated highlights every year is seeing Walt Disney's iconic Babes in Toyland soldiers from the 1961 film.
Currently, most of the program is taped in November (in the 2000s, even until early December) for broadcast on Christmas Day. However, until the early 1990s, the parade was broadcast live on Christmas Day on CBS, with whom Disney had partnered for Thanksgiving and New Year celebrations as well. In 1996, the program moved to ABC after Disney bought the network through its acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC that year. The parade continued to broadcast live on ABC on Christmas Day with another show recorded two days earlier for international use and/or as a back-up in case of weather issues.
The recorded segments of the parade show feature highlights of the activities through the Walt Disney Company including motion pictures, television, home entertainment and streaming, music, cruises, world tours, and the newest attractions and resort hotels slated for future launches in its various resort locations in the United States and around the world.
Starting in 2016, the Disney/ABC family of networks have aired companion specials in the weeks leading up to the parade. That year, The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration and Disney Parks Descendants Magical Holiday Celebration aired November 24 on ABC and November 25 on Disney Channel respectively, featuring many of the same personalities as the Christmas parade, tying into the Descendants TV-movie franchise. Some segments and performances in that year's Christmas parade were even recycled from the two earlier specials. The following year, Freeform announced that they would not only air the second Magical Holiday Celebration after its original airing on ABC, but premiere a new hour-long special entitled Decorating Disney: Holiday Magic, which goes behind the scenes of the Disney parks' holiday festivities. This move coincides with the channel's popular 25 Days of Christmas event expanding to many of the other Disney-owned networks. The Disney Channel special from the parks, now titled Disney Parks Presents a Disney Channel Holiday Celebration, also returned for the 2017 holiday season.[1] To reflect the huge part played in the production of the event, beginning in the parade of 2017, the prerecorded holiday greetings that air during the broadcast have been made not just by talents from both Walt Disney Pictures and the Disney Channel and the online streaming service Disney+, but also from the ABC Network, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, the Muppets and other entities owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company in the United States and around the world. Usually, the parade opens with the opening message from the CEO of Walt Disney welcoming television viewers to the broadcast, this was a tradition that began in 2002.
The special has been carried by the American Forces Network. Telemundo has aired Spanish-language versions of the special under the titles Desfile de Navidad Disney, (Feliz) Navidad Disney, and Navidad Mágica Disney, which typically feature Latin musicians. Until 2018, the special was also simulcast by CBC Television in Canada.
The 2005 edition of the parade won Harborlight Entertainment and ABC the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Special.
History
Walt Disney himself presented the first holiday parade from Disneyland Park in 1962 on the NBC network as an episode of his weekly anthology series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color entitled "Holiday Time at Disneyland." This was also the television parade debut of the Babes in Toyland soldiers, replicated exactly from the 1961 Disney musical feature, The soldiers, later seen in Mary Poppins, continue to be highly recognizable symbols of Disney Parks holiday parades and shows.
Walt Disney World's Very Merry Christmas Parade began on the ABC network 1983 with Joan Lunden as the first (and longest-running to date) host and Mike Douglas as co-host.[2] Alan Thicke later replaced Douglas, and Regis Philbin was later added as an on-street interviewer. In 1991, the first year there was a parade from both Magic Kingdom Park and (then) Disney-MGM Studios, Philbin and Lunden began a lengthy run as hosts with Mayim Bialik as the guest interviewer. Eventually Philbin was also joined by his colleague Kelly Ripa from Live with Regis and Kelly. Over time, the Disneyland Park in California gained more prominence, going from segments to parade coverage.
The parade has been aired every year since 1983 except in 2000 and 2020.
Over the years, the program has gone through a number of name changes. During the 1980s and 1990s, the program was known as The Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade. The program's name was then changed to Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade. From 2009 through 2013, the program was referred to as the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade. For a few years after that, the program's name would change on a yearly basis, being known as Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration in 2014, Disney Parks Unforgettable Christmas Celebration in 2015, Disney Parks Magical Christmas Celebration in 2016 and 2017, and finally Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade in 2018 and 2019.[3]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the 2020 edition (branded as the Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Celebration) was stated by ABC to have been "reimagined", with plans to include highlights from past editions among other features.[4] A limited in person parade would return in 2021.
The parade celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 2008. The 2023 ruby jubilee celebrations also mark one final event in a year long celebration of the Walt Disney Centennial celebrations marked by the wider Walt Disney group.
