10 Fun Facts About Disney World’s Holiday Decor
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! But, unless you’ve spent the holidays at the Most Magic Place on Earth, you don’t realize how truly wonderful! Each year, Disney’s hardworking team of Christmas elves go out of their way to bring the Christmas magic to the parks with so many baubles, bows, garlands, trees and lights that you won’t believe your eyes.
As a matter of fact, here are 10 of our favorite Disney Holiday Decor fun facts to give you a sense of the incredible size and scale of Disney’s Christmas decorating efforts.
Oh Tenenbaum!
Across the 40 square mile resort there are 29 iconic trees. These beauties range from 15 feet to 70 feet tall. In addition there are roughly another 596 trees from 2 – 14 feet tall.
When it comes to tree toppers, some of the stars at the tops of the Disney Christmas trees are up to seven feet wide and weigh more than 200 pounds.
70 Feet of Magic
When it comes to holiday decor, Disney towers over the competition! The tallest tree at Walt Disney World is found at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. This tree weighs more than 33,000 pounds and has over 1,200 individual branches. It takes 16,000 lights and 200 custom light up ornaments to bring this multi-colored display to life!
That’s a Lot of Ornaments
With so many trees to decorate each holiday season, imagine the amount of tinsel, lights and baubles. This should help put it into perspective. There are over 12,000 tree branches that need to be decorated each holiday season. That equals 110 tons of steel. These branches requires over 15,000 oversized ornaments and 260,000 lights!
Garlands Galore
That brings us to the next bit of Disney World holiday decor – the garlands! Disney tells us that nearly 5,000 garlands are hung throughout Walt Disney World Resort. Some of our favorites are found on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom. If you string all of the garlands side by side, it would cover 9 miles!
A Wealth of Wreaths
Did you know that you’ll find over 1,700 wreaths installed at Disney World each holiday season? Many of the wreaths are themed to their specific areas like the one above found on a lamppost on Main Street USA. See how many unique wreaths you can find during your Disney World visit including our favorite on the door of the Haunted Mansion. Also be on the lookout for our second favorite – the 5 feet façade wreath found on Sunset Boulevard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Photo: Disney Springs
Disney Springs Does It Best
At Walt Disney World, Disney Springs is the location that boasts the most holiday décor. Here you’ll find nearly 2,000 individual pieces including trees, garlands, ornaments and other festive details. They even make it snow in Town Center for some extra holiday ambiance.
Hurray for Holiday Services
Though we jokingly call them the Disney elves, the seasonal transformation at Walt Disney World simply wouldn’t be possible without the Holiday Services team. Did you know that there are 50 year round cast members and another 90 seasonal cast members that prep the property for Christmas!?
Photo: USA Today
It All Starts on Halloween
Once the parks empty out on Halloween Night, the transition to Christmas starts. Holiday decorating happens every night in November through until Thanksgiving when the transformation is complete. Decorations will stay up through New Year’s Day, after which they’ll disappear seemingly overnight!
That’s a Lot of Tinsel
Each year the Holiday Services department installs and removes more than 40,000 individual pieces of décor!
Image Credit: Disney
A Land and Sea Operation
The Holiday Services Team is responsible for decorating 780 locations at 41 different Disney properties. In addition to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line ships, Port Canaveral Terminal and Castaway Cay are part of their remit. The team also decorates Disney’s Vero Beach Resort and Disney’s Hilton Head Resort.
Readers are encouraged to keep following along with MickeyBlog for further Walt Disney World news and updates. We’ll be coming to you LIVE! from the theme parks each and every week.
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