#17 - Once Upon a Christmastime Parade

Category: Seasonal
Category Rank: 3

Park: Magic Kingdom
Park Rank: 7

We come to our 2nd parade in our list, the Once Upon a Christmastime Parade.  This parade takes place during the holiday season (November-December) at Magic Kingdom, and is a feature of the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.  The parade starts off as a nighttime spectacle, but eventually has shows during the day as well.  That was the case when we went for our first day back in 2009.

Much like the Boo-to-You parade, it contains many festive floats, as well as several marching groups.  The tin soldiers, for example, are one of the better attractions in the parade.  But, you also have the dancing ice-cutters from Frozen as well as skiing elves.  Mix in all of your favorite characters from the movies, and you have a great time.

To give you a rating, this parade is great, much better than the regular parades, which in turn are better than the everyday parade.  And, no, not everyone loves a parade, but whereas I find the regular Disney parades somewhat tolerable, the Christmas parade is a must see.  But in all honesty, it isn't as good as the Boo-to-You parade, which is more innovative and a better song to boot.

So, why does this one rate 10 higher than the superior parade?  The main reason is the significance to our family.  Shortly after we arrived on our first day at the park, we ate and then wandered a bit.  At that point the parade was starting.  In essence, this was our very first attraction in all of our Disney experience.  I can still remember our location from within Frontierland (on the river side), with Hannah on my shoulders at the time so she could see the floats in the parade.


Those first few moments of any one's first Disney trip are the most magical, beholding the park for the first time.  Adding that to the magic of the holiday season, and you have quite a special event.  It is hard to think about Christmas without remembering that day.

We come back to our restaurant category, and we have yet another table service restaurant at #16.  This is also a favorite of ours that we have visited many times, and you will see a striking resemblance to the overall experience that Whispering Canyons provides.