| Waiting for the ceremony to begin/(c) Let’s Play OC |
Last week we attended a Candlelight Ceremony at Disneyland with Kurt Russell as the celebrity narrator and was pleasantly surprised.
| Waiting for the ceremony to begin in Town Square/(c) Let’s Play OC |
| Kurt Russell in the bottom right hand corner/(c) Let’s Play OC! |
“As it has since 1958, the Disneyland Resort Candlelight Ceremony and Processional will illuminate Town Square on Main Street, U.S.A., in Disneyland Park, with the beauty and wonder of Christmas. During each night of the Ceremony, a celebrity narrator — accompanied by a choir of more than 600 singers and the Disneyland Orchestra — recounts the story of the first Christmas.”
Would you like to see a short video clip of the ceremony? (Hope you can hear how beautiful the choir sounds.)
All I can say is, it’s like Christmas Eve Mass, but you know, Disney-style!
- December 3, 4, 5: Kurt Russell
- December 6, 7, 8: Edward James Olmos
- December 9, 10, 11: Lou Diamond Phillips
- December 12, 13: Dick Van Dyke
- December 14: Marcia Gay Harden
- December 15, 16: Patricia Heaton
- December 17, 18, 19: Molly Ringwald
- December 20: Dennis Haysbert
*Information —including list of narrators — and event are
subject to restrictions, change and cancellation without notice. Seats
to all performances are limited and are subject to availability. The
entry period for this drawing has closed, but you can find the rules and how passholders were selected here.
You Might Want to Know:
(Note: I missed a lot of information, because I didn’t read my email. Don’t make the mistakes I did.)
- Anyone can attend. You don’t have to be chosen to attend, but you might want to stake out a nice spot to stand in the back.
- There are 2 performances nightly.
- Read your email. Don’t make the mistakes we did without reading the email entirely.
- Print out your email. If you were chosen, don’t forget to print your email (it’ll save you time; showing them your email on your smart phone won’t work. It’s also stated in your email =)).
- Pick up wristbands. Pick up wristbands at Station #4 with your entire party prior to entering the park. We didn’t read our email carefully so ended up losing another 20 minutes or so dragging everyone with us and running back and forth.
- Arrive early! Plan to arrive at least 1.5 hours to two hours before the ceremony to check in and get wristbands, etc. It’s ok if you’re super early, they’ll have chairs set up for you to sit on. They close the seating at 30 minutes before the show. Late arrivals will not be accommodated and wristbands will be forfeited.
- Free Parking! I just reread the email and there’s info there about FREE parking! Read your email for instructions if your passes don’t include parking.
- Ceremonies run about 45 minutes so plan accordingly.
After the ceremony, we got hungry so we stopped for treats at the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe off Main Street.
| Jolly Holly Bakery Cafe/(c) Let’s Play OC! |
| It starting snowing right outside the restaurant!/(c) Let’s Play OC! |
| It’s so festive walking down Main Street!/(c) Let’s Play OC! |
You can see more pictures from my photo gallery here. Enjoy!
Disclosure: I am an annual passholder. We received an event email and applied just like all the other passholders. They had limited seating. We attended the ceremony as a passholder and were not required to write about it. All opinions are my own. All images (c) Let’s Play OC!