Christmas at Disney California Adventure: 2021 Edition
Disney California Adventure, Anaheim CA
Happy Boxing Day! For those of you who miss Christmas already and can’t shake it so easily from your system (kind of like how we can’t really shake Halloween), today’s update is part 2 of our Disneyland Resort holiday pictorial extravaganza. We featured a gallery of holiday ambiance at Disneyland Park a couple of days ago, and today, it’s onto Disney California Adventure, where there is arguably an even greater density of Yuletide offerings compared to the original Magic Kingdom! At the very least, holiday decorations are prominent throughout a greater percentage of DCA than Disneyland.
Similar to our Christmas Eve update, this photo tour will be light on words (by my standards) and heavy on photos (even by my standards). So enjoy!
Christmas on Buena Vista Street
DCA’s answer to the classic Main Street Christmas atmosphere, Buena Vista Street offers a different classic holiday aesthetic, enhancing the 1920s aesthetic with colorful, large bulb string lights, simple and elegant wreaths, and a tinsel-filled towering Christmas tree at Carthay Circle.
Christmas at Carthay Circle is a clean, classic affair.
Carthay Circle is also home to a variety of wintertime photo ops with various Disney characters. Elsa and Queen Anna from the Frozen franchise are a pair, fittingly enough. So are Mickey Mouse and friends, dressed in their cold weather garb. The park is still implementing social distancing policies, so all characters are behind ropes and at a distance, but I think this works better, because it allows for multiple guests to get their photos at once and cuts down on the character meet-and-greet lines.
Queen [SPOILERS] Anna greets guests at Carthay Circle.
Mickey Mouse does too, complete with his spiffy scarf!
Christmas in Hollywood Land
Christmas on Hollywood Land is one extension of that on Buena Vista Street, shifting the tone to the 1930s but maintaining the glitzy, glamorous, classic holiday feel. At the end of Hollywood Blvd, Santa Claus even swoops in for an appearance, swinging by the Hyperion Theatre. This is not live Santa, though. He’s elsewhere in the park. But it’s still a familiar and popular photo op!
Hollywood Land is home of tinsel in many forms during Christmas.
Carsmas in Cars Land
The richest and grandest rendition of the holidays at Disney California Adventure has to come from Cars Land, where they celebrate “Carsmas” and wish guests “Happy Haul-i-days” with a bevy of fun, clever visual puns that illustrate the spirit and the icons of the season. From tire wreaths to air filter and string light garlands to coney Christmas trees to wrench snowflakes and hub cab ornaments, there is so much to take in. Cars Land looks especially spectacular at light, when the neon of Radiator Springs combines with the Christmas string lights to imbue a kaleidoscope of color. It’s a joy just to walk through and take everything in!
Carsmas is always a lovely and beautiful sight.
The neon and Christmas lights go so well together!
Love all the automotive artistic representations in this form of the holidays!
Christmas in Grizzly Peak
Similar to Critter Country, Christmas at Grizzly Peak is a rustic affair, with simpler decoration consisting mostly of string lights draping the evergreen trees. One noticeable standout is the Grizzly River Run bear, which stands towering over all in his ridiculous ugly Christmas sweater that lights up. He’s a monumental photo op and one of my favorite Christmas features in all of the Resort.
Grizzly Peak celebrates a very woodsy Christmas.
That giant ugly Christmas sweater is still amazing after all these years.
Coincidentally, the rustic wilderness part of DCA also plays home to Santa Claus, similar to Santa’s meet-and-greet setting at Disneyland. At California Adventure, St. Nick can be found a the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, which has been transformed into a winter playground. Unfortunately, my nighttime excursions mean that this area was already closed, but it’s popular for guests looking to meet the big jolly ol’ fella during the daytime!
Visit Santa over here! But now. Santa’s resting. Or flying around.
Christmas in Paradise Park
Paradise Park has its own mix of Christmas decorations, divided between the more classic tinker toy soldier aesthetic of the front half of the area and the ¡Viva Navidad! portion that occupies the Boardwalk restaurants area on the back half. This year, the meet-and-greet portion has been slightly adjusted from Coco to Encanto, but the vibe is just as vibrant and colorful. In addition, the Garden Grill is also offering its Mexican-themed seasonal menu.
These toy soldier / drummer boy figures are pretty cute at Paradise Park!
The photo spot at the gazebo this year is themed to Encanto.
Paradise Garden Grill has its winter seasonal menu again.
The Festival of Holidays
The big event at Disney California Adventure is the Festival of Holidays, a mini-Food and Wine Festival that takes on a winter theme. We’ve covered this extensively in past years, and this year’s format is much of the same. There are eight gourmet specialty food stalls along the parade corridor from just past Carthay Circle up to the Golden Zephyr in Paradise Park. In addition, various boutique and souvenir stands and some activity hubs line the way.
Bustling activity along the parade corridor for the Festival of Holidays.
There are lots of shopping opportunities too, of course.
In the past, our favorite part of the Festival of Holidays was enjoying the various food options. This year, with limited reservation availability, we weren’t able to make our usual full food tour, nor did we even visit to make the returning Sip n Savor Pass worth it. In addition, many of the small plates-sized food items this year were repeats of past year, though several restaurants are also offering more full sized seasonal items (thanks to our Disney Food Blog friends for the round-up).
Favorites from this year’s limited samplings included:
Braised Pork Belly Adobo with Garlic Fried Rice from the Holiday Duets booth, located in a little inset off the main pathway just behind the Carthay Circle Restaurant
Esquites Carnitas Mac & Cheese featuring Oaxaca and Cotija Cheeses with Spiced Puffed Rice from the Merry Mashups booth, next to Golden Zephyr
Holiday Spiced Wings with Citrus Cranberries from the Merry Mashups booth, next to Golden Zephyr
And plenty of delicious foods too!
Festival Entertainment
The Festival of Holidays also features a variety of live entertainment in several locations, including the Paradise Park main stage, the Paradise Gardens Bandstand, the Sonama Terrace, and next to Pacific Wharf Cafe. The ¡Viva Navidad! celebration also features musical renditions of Latin American holiday traditions. The new Encanto movie also takes center stage in this year’s musical movie summary performance, replacing Cocoi.
The Festival of Holidays has plenty of live musical entertainment.
These stanchions list a few of the regulars.
Showtimes vary, consult the Disneyland app or web site for your visit!
Here are some photos from a couple of bands that I caught during my couple of visits earlier this season.
Mostly Kosher
The Suffragettes
That wraps up our Disney Christmas updates! We’re hoping you enjoy a fantastic holiday break as we roll into the new year, and stay safe and healthy so that 2022 can be better than the past couple of years. The spirit of the season is about being good, considerate, kind human beings who care about each other. To that end, be patient with people when you’re out, get vaccinated and boosted if you can to help the community collectively fight off this stubborn pandemic more and more, and remember that at the end of the day, we all have more similarities than differences.
Merry ChristmaFestiKwanzakahLidays, folks!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
