ABC filmed the 2024 “Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade” at Walt Disney World back in mid-November. I spent the day watching it live in Magic Kingdom, from park opening until after park closing, and share photos & my experience–plus when the show airs on ABC, Disney+ and YouTube, the performer lineup, and predictions for 2025 theme park announcements.
Let’s start with the basics about ABC’s Christmas Day Parade. Not to ruin the illusion, but ABC’s Disney Christmas Day Parade does not air live–and hasn’t been for a while. It’s pre-recorded over a month in advance over a couple days at the same time as the Thanksgiving weekend special. The silver lining is that, depending upon your age, your whole childhood might not be a lie. If you remember the version hosted by Regis Philbin and Joan Lunden, that would’ve been live (at least, partially).
Nowadays, showing up to Walt Disney World or Disneyland on Christmas Day to see celebrity performances live would be a pretty big blunder. Sure, you’ll be able to see Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade in person…but not the celebrities or musical performances or anything special. It’ll just be the parade itself, which runs during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, then for about a week-plus stretch in the lead-up to Christmas and New Year’s Eve…oh, and a random day or two in mid-November when the ABC special is recorded.
The vast majority of this year’s ABC’s Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade was filmed at Walt Disney World over the course of Veterans Day Weekend–back on Saturday and Sunday, November 9 and 10. I watched it live on that Sunday, which is what this post covers (along with the previous year).
For those planning ahead for 2025 Walt Disney World vacations, it’ll probably be filmed around the same weekend next year. This has been the case for two consecutive years, and it seems like it works well for Disney–the production process seemed really smooth this year, especially as compared to previous years when the parade was filmed in early December.
See our list of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025 & 2026, as the weeks around this date make both lists. With that said, even though Veterans Day and Jersey Week are on the “worst” side, the crowds aren’t as bad as they used to be–and are more avoidable if you pick your parks wisely. This week is definitely worse than the one before or after it, as well as the entire months of August and September, but it’s not bad–like the three-week stretch from Christmas to early January.
As for what to expect from the ABC Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade, the special features holiday classics, plus original music, and heartwarming stories about how the Disney Parks bring families together. It also showcases new attractions that are coming soon or recently opened at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, as well as sneak peeks of movies and shows coming to theaters and streaming services. Basically, these specials are one part entertainment and one part infomercial for all things Disney.
The 2024 ABC Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade is hosted by Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro, and was once again filmed at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The parade itself features fan-favorite Disney Characters, talented performers, festive cheer, and fun music.
The ABC Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade isn’t just Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade, though. There are also a number of musical performances by big names on the Cinderella Castle Forecourt Stage. Additional performances were recorded at Disneyland Resort in California, Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point, and Aulani Resort and Spa in Hawaii.
Here’s how and where to watch the Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade on December 25, 2024:
- ABC Television Network: 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. EST/9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. CST/5:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m. MST/PST
- Disney+ Streaming Service: 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. EST/10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. CST on Disney+ as part of “Spend Christmas Day with Disney+”
- YouTube: 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. EST/10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. CST
The big change for 2024 is that the Christmas Day parade will stream an hour later on Disney+ and YouTube. In previous years, it’s been available the next day. I don’t know about you, but even though I know the parade was filmed over a month ago (because I saw it in person!), watching it the day after Christmas just isn’t the same. Even if it’s not live live, it’s still a television ‘event’ that’s best enjoyed when everyone else is, on Christmas morning!
“Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade” will also feature musical performances for the special including the following:
- Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro – “Winter Wonderland”
- Elton John – “Tiny Dancer”
- Andy Grammer and Junkanoo Celebration Performers – “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”
- John Legend – “This Christmas”
- Carly Pearce – “(Everybody’s Waitin’ For) The Man With The Bag”
- Pentatonix – “12 Days of Christmas”
- Disney on Broadway Stars Kalilah Black, Lauren Nicole Chapman, Daniel Gardner, Bradley Gibson, Marq Moss, Amber Owens, Melaina Rairamo, John Riddle, Michael James Scott and Jessica White – Medley
- Cast of “Descendants: The Rise of Red” – “Red Christmas” / “Jolly to the Core”
- Anika Noni Rose – “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”
- SEVENTEEN – “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”
You won’t want to miss the incredible floats and dazzling decorations of the parade at Walt Disney World and all the holiday magic that comes to life. Plus, catch a sneak peak at what’s to come in 2025 at the Disney Parks!
We always watch the ABC Disney Christmas Day Parade specifically for this reason–to see what’s teased or revealed for the year to come. Honestly, I’m not expecting much in that regard this year. Neither Walt Disney World nor Disneyland have much in the pipeline for the next couple of years, so there isn’t really much that can be revealed. Here are some possibilities and predictions that are somewhat realistic:
- New Tropical Americas Concept Art or Details
- New Test Track 3.0 Concept Art
- WDW Entertainment Announcement for 2025
- WDW Summer 2025 Celebration
- New Starlight Parade Concept Art or Debut Date
- Disneyland 70th Anniversary First Look
- Sneak Peek at Walt Disney Audio Animatronics Figure
That’s really about it. Disney has already indicated there will be a first look at the upcoming Disneyland 70th Anniversary celebration, so that’s a given. The big question is then what will be shared for Walt Disney World. Announcing a start date for Starlight Night Parade or whatever else Walt Disney World has planned for Summer 2025 makes the most sense, especially since families start thinking about and booking next year’s trips while watching these shows.
As for my experience watching the filming of the 2024 ABC Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade live in person, it was awesome. This is the second consecutive year I’ve sought out parade filming weekend, after years of avoiding it.
In the past, we’ve warned that the special can be boring to watch in person and it creates congestion. What you’re seeing on television now might seem like it’d be fun to see in person, but is the result of meticulous work in shooting, re-shooting, and careful editing. This applies to the musical performances on the Cinderella Castle stage, not the parade itself. The “quick” songs interspersed throughout the special actually take much, much longer to film than Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade!
This isn’t to say it’s not enjoyable to watch (it is!), we just want to set expectations appropriately. There’s a lot of stopping, pausing, and restarting. The songs you see performed on stage are not like a traditional concert with the performer singing a variety of different holiday hits. It’s the same song several times, and then the next performer moving on to their song…also performed several times. What you see in the span of a couple hours on television can take multiple days to record.
The big downside of watching Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade is the crowds and congestion.
With this being the second consecutive year that Disney has recorded the ABC Christmas Day Parade on the exact same weekend, word has gotten out among locals and diehard fans. As soon as the schedule updated in October, we shared that you can see Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade filmed during the day for free! with readers. This site wasn’t the only one.
Consequently, crowds were heavy along the parade route to watch Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade with approximately half of the Sunshine State descending upon Main Street. Last year, I showed up a couple hours in advance to stake out my favorite spot–the perfect dead-on view of Cinderella Castle. This year, that area was already packed with people much earlier (as such, the parade photos are from last year–I had a very suboptimal angle this year and most of my photos are garbage as a result).
Who could blame fans for staking out spots so early? It was a rare opportunity to see Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade without dropping $150+ per person for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party or visiting the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s Eve. It’s a great opportunity to enjoy an excellent parade that’s normally paywalled.
Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade is largely presented in its normal, uninterrupted form for the ABC Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade. There are a few mostly unnoticeable modifications, but nothing major–an opening banner, a few characters, plus both Santa and Mrs. Claus.
It’s cool to see the production in action. Cameras swoop up and down in the middle of Main Street to capture footage of the parade as it runs mostly as normal. Aside from a couple of times when it seemed like the parade slowed down and lingered just a bit in that area, Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade is a regular parade during the recording. This is the one thing that’s more or less the same live in person as it is at home.
This means there was no starting and stopping or multiple takes. Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade is maybe 1-2 minutes longer than normal, which isn’t bad. If anything, there are fewer interruptions live in person than there are on the ABC special!
Beyond this, there are pros and cons to the ABC Holiday Specials being filmed in Magic Kingdom. Lines for rides were shorter than they would’ve been otherwise. Crowd levels, as measured by wait times, were low to moderate over the course of both days, despite it being a holiday weekend.
The added bonus was that Magic Kingdom had longer hours to accommodate the filming and accompanying guest disruptions. The park opened at 8 am both days, closing at midnight on Saturday and 11 pm on Sunday. To the best of my recollection, that was the only midnight closure at Magic Kingdom this entire holiday season to date (December 30-31 will have longer hours).
The downside of the filming on the day I visited was that the entirety of Main Street was closed off for several hours, and the entire area in front of Cinderella Castle was blocked off for the on-stage performances. I didn’t notice any other pathways blocked off, as was the case last year, but those are often short-lived, so it’s possible that I simply missed the closures.
Honestly, I didn’t watch any of the daytime performances in front of Cinderella Castle.
There were a couple ‘lessons’ that I learned last year. The first was that the daytime performances were much, much more crowded and it was difficult to see anything going on.
The second was that there are fireworks–lots and lots of fireworks–during the nighttime performances. Given those two things, skipped the daytime stage shows and did rides then, returning in the evening for those musical numbers and the accompanying pyro.
The biggest downside of this was that I missed Elton John, one of my all-time favorite musicians. He recorded songs right around sunset into the early evening, presumably so his set could be used for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas Day specials. This also means that I didn’t catch any of the performances that’ll be used for the ABC Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade. I’ll be watching at home for the first time like everyone else.
At least, I assume. Disney normally uses the nighttime footage for the Thanksgiving special, which is “set” at night. The ABC Christmas Day Parade is set, as the name suggests, during the day. So the daytime performances are used for that. It’s a clever approach to get more mileage out of the two-day recording, which occurs at pretty much all hours of the day and is filmed when sunset is around 5 pm!
Here are more of my photos from the ABC Christmas Day Parade filming in Magic Kingdom:
Ultimately, spending all day in Magic Kingdom for the 2024 ABC Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade filming was a fun experience, and one I’m very happy to have had! This was my second consecutive year doing it, and I really hope to be able to repeat it in 2025. Assuming it happens Veterans Day weekend again, that should be easy to accomplish.
It’s also one we’d now actively recommend to other Walt Disney World fans. My advice to anyone reading this on the fence about visiting Magic Kingdom on these days is to do it. But rather than staking out a parade spot 3-4 hours in advance, just get a subpar view in Frontierland at the last minute. After that, skip the rest of the daytime performances and return to the Cinderella Castle hub area after Happily Ever After. Enjoy a couple hours of performances with fireworks, lower crowds, and better visibility.
All in all, seeing Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas Time, even amid heavy crowds along the parade route (they’re only likely to get worse as word continues to get out), is a lot of fun. Same goes for the on-stage performances, especially those at night for the Thanksgiving special, complete with tons of fireworks. If you don’t mind somewhat elevated crowds over the holiday weekend and parts of the park being closed off (not rides, but walkways) while recording is happening, it’s a great time to visit! It helps that Veterans Day isn’t as busy as it used to be, a trend we’d also expect to continue in 2025.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Were you in Magic Kingdom during the day or at night when the 2024 Holiday Specials were filmed? Did you watch the parade, musical performances on stage, or both? What was your experience? Have you been in Walt Disney World or Disneyland during past filmings? Would you like to attend? Thoughts on ABC’s Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade or the Thanksgiving weekend special? 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!
