Come With Me To Go BEHIND The Scenes of Disney's Christmas Special!

One of my biggest traditions every year is watching The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular on December 1st and then waking up on Christmas morning to watch The Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade.

If you had told me I would someday get to go behind the scenes and see filming for both of those shows, I might’ve thought you were lying. But this year, I went behind the scenes to see how the holiday magic is made.

So each of these specials has special performances from celebrities, and these are generally filmed overnight when there aren’t any people in the parks, which makes total sense. Filming took place on both October 16th and 17th, and that may seem early, but that gives Disney plenty of time to do their editing and get the best version of the performance ready to air on TV. This year was special, though, because for the first time ever, the media were invited to see these special performances.

For the event, Myranda and I got to stay at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort — Riverside, but we didn’t get much sleep because we were standing OUTSIDE the resort at 4 AM, ready to go to the taping. The good news is that a Joffrey’s truck was waiting for us there, so we could caffeinate and grab a morning snack. So thank you for that, Joffrey’s.

Then we were put on a bus and taken to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We noticed landscaping trucks, a lot of pressure-washing, and little signs that the park was getting a quick touch-up for the park’s big close-up. Nothing was overlooked — we saw bushes being trimmed, a little bit of painting, and more. We were ushered over to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, where we watched some wardrobe folks walking out of Docking Bay 7 with racks of clothes. It almost felt like we were on a movie set, and in a way, we kinda’ were!

Once everything was in place and the lighting was tested, Good Charlotte came out and rocked Batuu with “Fairytale of New York.” The most interesting part is seeing it all happen. The band was accompanied by three string instruments and two backup vocalists. There were also some cool effects and pyrotechnics during the second take. We even got to be part of the show because the audience was instructed to do certain motions during certain parts of the song.

Around 6 AM (yep, it was still early, but we’d already felt like we’d attended a rock concert in the middle of the night), we were released from that set and then waited about 2 hours for the next. Then, Coco Jones came out and sang “Last Christmas” (yes, we reached Whamageddon in OCTOBER.) and some of the takes even had fireworks. Disney does not PLAY with these performances. Also, these folks are all professionals because the entire thing was done in four takes.

On the second night, we headed to Disney’s Animal Kingdom at around 3:30 AM. The stage was set up in front of the Tree of Life, and a choir was rehearsing “Silent Night” with a stage director in Coco Jones’ place as they ran through it. She came out and sang with the choir, and we learned that one of the choir conductors is from EPCOT’s Candlelight Processional. So cool! Filming went about the same as the previous night.

Seeing the specials on TV is one thing, but getting to see it as it was filmed is an experience I don’t think either of us will ever forget.

Be sure to watch the Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade on December 25th on ABC at 10:00 AM EST and streaming at 11:00 AM on Disney+, Hulu, and the Disney YouTube channel. The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular is also streaming now on Disney+, Hulu, and the Disney YouTube channel.

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Are these two specials a must-watch for you during the holiday season? Share with us in the comments!

Disclosure: We were invited by Disney to attend the holiday special filming. This did not affect our reporting of the event — our opinions are our own.