Disneyland at Christmas

Since I have an annual pass to Disneyland this year I was really wanting to get down there to see the Christmas decorations.  This past weekend my mom and I took a little trip to do just that. Warning: this post may contain picture overload!

I, of course, couldn't go without wearing some of my fun Disney hair accessories.  I don't get to wear them anywhere else so I try to take advantage of my opportunities.

Disney definitely takes its holiday decorating seriously and I am always impressed at all the small details.  Apparently this has been done at Disneyworld for a few years but this is the first time I have seen the Jungle Cruise turned into the Jingle Cruise at Disneyland.  The premise of the ride is that all the holiday decorations and supplies that had been ordered never arrived at the way-station.  They are instead found all over the ride and put the various uses.

The elephants are enjoying some Christmas wreaths and colored balls.

There are all kinds Christmas decorations scattered throughout the ride but I had to laugh when I saw fruitcake floating in the water.  My dad loves fruitcake but of course Disney took the opportunity to make traditional fruitcake jokes.  Almost all the jokes on the ride are actually new and holiday related.

After going on the Jingle Cruise my mom and I made our way over to Holiday Haunted Mansion stopping to ride other rides on the way.  Not the best picture of us but still fun.

After riding lots of rides and admiring the decorations my mom and I hopped on the train to ride around the park before heading to California Adventure to eat lunch.  Riding the train is always a nice way to see the park and rest your feet at the same time.  The train station at Main Street was all decorated for Christmas with blue 60th anniversary accents too.

We discovered that our best kept secret of eating lunch in the lounge of Carthay Circle is no longer a secret at all.  There were lots of people there but that didn't stop us from having a fun lunch.  We sat at a table with a group of guys who were definitely have a good time.  I didn't manage to take a picture of our food but I did capture our pretty drinks before we slurped them up.

After going back to our hotel for a little rest during the hottest, busiest part of the afternoon we returned to a magical sparkly wonderland.  Your really can't beat the beauty of Disneyland all lit up with Christmas decorations.  

We wanted to spend the evening in Disneyland (we only had one night in the parks) but we went into California Adventure for a just a bit to see it all lit up.  The big tree was gorgeous and there were so many fun ornaments. There was even a train set going around the bottom.  I wish we had more time to go further into the park to see the rest the decorations all lit up but we had to make do with what we saw.

It was too crowded to ride It's a Small World that night but we watched the clock show and admired the lights.  Don't worry we went back the next day to see the inside all done up for Christmas but the  outside is by far best at night.

There is a special 60th anniversary parade called Paint the Night that I had been hearing wonderful things about so we braved the crowds and watched the parade.  The braving part didn't happen during the parade but the hour or so we had to stand around waiting for the parade to start.  The parade was indeed fantastic complete with Belle all lit up.

We stopped to admire the huge ginormous Christmas tree on Main Street before heading back to our hotel.  After all day on our feet I can say we both slept well and we were up bright and early the next day to head back to the park.

We only had until the early afternoon in the parks on Sunday but we managed to ride just about everything we had missed on Saturday in Disneyland.  We missed a few fun rides in California Adventure but I have a pass so I know I will be back soon.