Walt Disney World has released a list of 7 new things to do at the 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays, the fan-favorite Christmas-time special event! This post shares a full rundown of the free activities, decorations and displays, merchandise, and more.
Unlike the rest of the Christmas season at Walt Disney World, the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays starts on November 29. The holiday festivities at EPCOT always begin on Black Friday and end the day before New Year’s Eve to clear space for those festivities. With Thanksgiving falling later this year, that means the festival is almost a week shorter than normal.
In essence, Festival of the Holidays is a continuation of EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival (which runs later), right down to repurposing some of the food booths from that event (which ends shortly before Festival of the Holidays starts). Unlike that, the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Holidays is not primarily about the cuisine–this is not simply the Christmastime Foodie Fest!
The real focal point of EPCOT’s Festival of the Holidays is decorations, live music, entertainment, family-friendly activities, global Santa Clauses (and other storytellers), and more. You can read about the slate in our full Guide to the 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays.
The highlight of the holidays at EPCOT is Candlelight Processional. This year has one of the best narrator lineups in years. There’s something for everyone here, from longtime fan-favorites to new-comers and more appealing to the tastes of younger guests. For everything you need to know Candlelight Processional–including the full lineup of narrators and how to score dining packages (even when no ADR availability is showing up online)–see our Guide to 2024 Candlelight Processional at EPCOT.
Suffice to say, you could spend an entire day in Epcot just enjoying the holiday entertainment without ever purchasing a snack (and we will do exactly that later in the season…well, maybe just one Yule Log). In addition to all of the World Showcase offerings, there’s the can’t miss Christmas ride overlay in the front of the park: Living with the Land – Merry & Bright Nights.
Anyway, here’s what’s new for the 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays…
A Grand & Miraculous Gingerbread Display
The creative minds of the EPCOT Festival Team and Walt Disney Imagineering paired up with the delicious skills of the EPCOT Pastry team to create something truly grand and miraculous – an 8-foot-tall gingerbread display inspired by Spaceship Earth. The geodesic sphere made up of hundreds of handcrafted gingerbread triangles will be on display inside CommuniCore Hall for all guests to see and enjoy throughout the festival.
Just like its park icon counterpart, the gingerbread version will also light up and dance to music periodically throughout the day. You can discover the next dancing lights performance of this tasty creation with a countdown, courtesy of the Celebration Countdown.
Gingerbread Spaceship Earth was first revealed in Gingerbread Houses for Christmas 2024 at Walt Disney World, but this offers a couple of new details. In particular, that it’ll have a form of the Beacons of Magic and that there will be a countdown. As before, I’m really looking forward to this. For one thing, I love Spaceship Earth. For another, it’s nice to see CommuniCore Hall actually being put to good use.
Deck the (CommuniCore) Hall
Once you’ve finished marveling at the gingerbread Spaceship Earth, stroll around CommuniCore Hall to take in beautiful, seasonal décor inspired by the unique design of EPCOT. Enjoy an enchanting forest with the Glittering Grove presented by Balsam Hill, where twinkling trees bring festive flair.
I’m choosing to be cautiously optimistic about the seasonal decorations for the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Holidays, and really hope Walt Disney World learned from their mistake of an underwhelming and recycled decor package from Food & Wine. Historically, EPCOT has had much more ambitious Christmas decorations than any other season, save for perhaps Festival of the Arts. I hope that trend continues, and what was showcased in the original concept art for CommuniCore Hall and Plaza (pictured above) actually comes to fruition.
I’m flat-out excited for Glittering Grove–no ‘caution’ about it. As a regular consumer of Hallmark Channel holiday content, I’ve become quite familiar with Balsam Hill. I’ve even been almost influenced to purchase one of their trees thanks to aggressive product placement…until I saw the prices. Yowzers!
In any case, the one thing I’ve learned from watching Hallmark Channel way too much this time of year is that Balsam Hill has an incredibly healthy marketing budget. They might be single-handedly funding all those films, for all I know. Given that, I would expect to see the sponsorship produce a truly enchanting forest of Christmas trees. It makes sense, too. Balsam Hill is clearly selling an aspirational product (to the extent that Christmas decorations can be described as such), and Walt Disney World offers the perfect guest demographics for that.
Here’s hoping my enthusiasm ends up being accurate, as World Celebration could really use a shot in the arm. It’d be nice if it didn’t look like any ole office park for a couple months of the year!
New Holiday Kitchens
This year, there are two new Holiday Kitchens at CommuniCore Hall. The first (and this might be my favorite name of any festival food and beverage location of all time) is Experimental Prototype Cookies of Tomorrow and they’ll be serving – you guessed it – cookies. Remember the gingerbread triangles that make up the Spaceship Earth display? You can purchase gingerbread triangles of your own at this Holiday Kitchen in a decorating kit, which is a perfect activity for little ones to enjoy.
Next, indulge in the best-loved dishes from previous years with Favorites of Festivals Past, located right outside CommuniCore Hall. After you enjoy these cookies and cuisine, you’ll also be able to find an assortment of festival merchandise inside CommuniCore Hall. Ugh.
Two steps forward, one leap backwards. I had hoped that Walt Disney World and EPCOT leadership had learned from the mistake of Food & Wine Festival. For that event, Disney “transformed” CommuniCore Hall into a glorified food booth, seating area, and makeshift merchandise kiosk. Nothing was purpose-built for the location–it looked just like the setup for one-weekend runDisney events.
By itself, it was a bad look. It’s downright pathetic as compared to concept art showing installations and exhibits for festivals. What adds insult to injury is the abject greed in thinking there was sufficient space in this rather small hall for (yet another!) merchandise spot.
CommuniCore Hall is objectively worse than any festival space used at EPCOT in the last decade. That’s right, the new purpose-built festival venue that took 5 years and untold hundreds of millions of dollars to bring to life, is inferior to past temporary venues even from a festival perspective.
All of the things CommuniCore promised have been squandered. There’s the “state-of-the-art show kitchen” that Disney teased “may even attract a few special culinary guests.” It’ll be used this Christmas to serve cookies. There’s the “dynamic space to anchor” EPCOT Festivals and event space “limited only by the boundaries of imagination.”
No matter how you slice it, CommuniCore Hall is underwhelming and uninspired. But it still is a flex space, and could be put to ambitious use with more art, interactive experiences, something–anything–to go alongside the Gingerbread Spaceship Earth, which actually does sound awesome.
Gingerbread Spaceship Earth could have been the tentpole of a fun and festive space for the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Holidays, with the space finally living up to a sliver of its potential. Instead, it’ll be mostly more of the same. Here’s hoping Disney gets the memo in time for the 2025 EPCOT Festival of the Arts.
Free Snowflake Decorating
Stepping outside of CommuniCore Hall and into CommuniCore Plaza, you’ll find a new, complimentary activity that is perfect for kids of all ages – snowflake decorating! Add this to your list of festival fun to do with the family, along with catching performances of Holiday Storytellers around World Showcase and enjoying the lights at Living with the Land with the Glimmering Greenhouses overlay – all holiday activities that are also included with the price of your ticket to the park.
While you’re enjoying creating a snowflake or two, you can listen to the spirited performances of JOYFUL! A Celebration of the Season as they perform in their all-new location at CommuniCore Plaza. Check out My Disney Experience for showtimes.
Seasonal Scents
Along the walkway between the Imagination! pavilion and World Showcase, stop by to see an all-new seasonal display, open to all guests throughout the festival. Festive Fragrances is a gift for the senses – you can stroll through a snow globe garden, featuring seasonal aromas.
For comprehensive tips for planning your Christmas-time trip to Walt Disney World, check out our Ultimate Guide to Christmas at Walt Disney World. For Walt Disney World trip planning tips and comprehensive advice, make sure to read our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide and related articles.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you looking forward to any of the new things to do at the 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays? Do you typically focus on foods, entertainment, decorations, or a mixture of the above at the Christmas-time EPCOT event? What are you looking forward to trying at the Holiday Kitchen food booths during the 2024 Festival of the Holidays? Any questions? Hearing from you is half the fun, so please share your thoughts in the comments!
