We Watched ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney Holiday Spectacular Filming in Magic Kingdom

Earlier this month, ABC filmed the “Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. I spent the day watching that TV special being filmed in Magic Kingdom, from park opening until after park closing, and thought I’d share photos plus my experience–plus when the show airs on ABC, Disney+ and Hulu over Thanksgiving weekend.

Not to ruin the illusion or anything, but the ‘The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” is not broadcast live from Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Unlike the television special itself, the recording is not done neatly over the course of an hour or 90 minutes. So don’t make the mistake–like some fans do–of showing up to the parks on the night it airs, expecting to see it live. (This actually does happen–a lot–with ABC’s Disney Christmas Day Parade. I’m guessing it’s not nearly as common with the Thanksgiving special.)

Suffice to say, the Disney holiday television specials that air around Thanksgiving and Christmas are pre-recorded starting in November at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, Disneyland Resort in California, and other destinations around the world. Last year, this included Aulani Resort in Hawaii, aboard Disney Cruise Line, and at Disneyland Paris.

The specials feature holiday classics, plus original music, and heartwarming stories about how the Disney Parks bring families together. They also showcase new attractions that are coming soon or recently opened at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, as well as sneak peeks of movies and shows coming to theaters and streaming services. Basically, these specials are one part entertainment and one part infomercial for all things Disney.

We always watch both the Thanksgiving spectacular and the ABC Disney Christmas Day Parade specifically for this reason–to see sneak peeks and what’s revealed for 2025. Honestly, I’m not expecting much in that regard this year. Neither Walt Disney World nor Disneyland have much in the pipeline for the next couple of years, so there isn’t really much that can be revealed. Here are some possibilities and predictions that are somewhat realistic:

• First Look Inside Island Tower at the Polynesian
• New Tropical Americas Concept Art or Details
• New Test Track 3.0 Concept Art
• WDW Entertainment Announcement for 2025
• New Starlight Parade Concept Art or Debut Date
• Disneyland 70th Anniversary Start Date
• Paint the Night at Disneyland Return Date
• Sneak Peek at Walt Disney Audio Animatronics Figure
• DLR Entertainment Announcement for 2025

That’s really about it. Personally, I think announcing start dates for Starlight Night Parade at Walt Disney World and Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary make the most sense, especially since families start thinking about and booking next year’s trips while watching these shows. But it might be premature for announcements about either–and those are more likely during the ABC Christmas Day Parade, regardless.

More likely, there’s a sizzle reel about things that have just debuted (completed EPCOT overhaul and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure) and perhaps a recap of the D23 Expo announcements, minus the controversial stuff (Rivers of America replacement and MuppetVision closing).

With that said, we also think the ”The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” is legitimately enjoyable and would watch even without the expectation of any news. The performances are enjoyable and it’s a nice ‘taste of Disney’ while at home. Honestly, we’ve both come to prefer the Thanksgiving weekend special to the ABC Disney Christmas Day Parade, despite the latter being the iconic special we both grew up on.

Anyway, here are details about the ”The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” in case you want to catch it live or on streaming services…

Hosted by Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro, ”The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” returns for its ninth year with a sparkling spectacle of new musical performances from Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, Disneyland Resort in California and Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa in Ko’Olina, Hawaiʻi.

Narrated by Kristen Bell, who will share the tale of how the Disney Parks kicks off the most magical holiday ever, “The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” airs on Sunday, December 1, 2024 at 8:01 p.m. EST/PST on ABC. The special is available to stream starting December 2, 2024 on Hulu and Disney+.

”The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” performances include the following:

• Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro – “Deck the Halls” / “Holly Jolly Christmas”
• Auliʻi Cravalho – “Beyond” (from “Moana 2”)
• Elton John – “Your Song”
• John Legend – “Always Come Back” / “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
• Seth MacFarlane and Liz Gillies – “White Christmas”
• Ava Max – “O Holy Night” / “1 Wish”
• Leslie Odom, Jr. and the Imani Milele Choir – “Little Drummer Boy”
• Carly Pearce – “Let It Snow”
• Pentatonix – “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”
• Anika Noni Rose – “Milele” (from “Mufasa: The Lion King” in theaters Dec. 20)
• SEVENTEEN – “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”

“The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” is produced by Disney executive and senior executive producer Sally Hopkins Conner for Disney Yellow Shoes Studio, who brought on production company EverWonder Studio, and executive producers Michael Antinoro and Ashley Edens as well as Film 45.

The majority of the 2024 ”The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” was filmed at Walt Disney World over Veterans Day weekend. For those planning ahead for 2024 Walt Disney World vacations, it’ll probably be filmed around the same day next year.

See our list of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025 & 2026, as the weeks around this date make both lists. (It’s really like flipping a switch with heavy crowds one day and off-season the next.)

With that said, I was in the parks over Veterans Day weekend, and despite all hotels being sold out (well, I think there were a couple random suites left at Coronado Springs), the crowds were completely manageable. It was busy, but not bonkers. Longer hours certainly helped, but it still wasn’t nearly as bad as crowds during the same stretch either of the last two years.

That bodes well for 2025 and 2026, especially–as noted above–since there’s nothing new to draw tourists to the parks. That is, unless Bob Iger is right and Epic Universe is “actually positive” for Walt Disney World. That, or if they finally come to their senses and bring back the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights for Christmas 2025!

As for my experience watching the filming of the 2024 “The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular,” it was very positive–with one big exception, but that was an unforced error on my part.

In the past, we’ve warned that this can be boring to watch in person and it creates congestion. What you’re seeing on television now might look really fun to see in person, but is the result of meticulous work in shooting, re-shooting, and careful editing.

This isn’t to say it’s not enjoyable to watch (it is!), we just want to set expectations appropriately. There’s a lot of stopping, pausing, and restarting. The songs you see performed on stage are not like a traditional concert with the performer singing a variety of different holiday hits. It’s the same song several times, and then the next performer moving on to their song…also performed several times. What you see in the span of a couple hours on television can take multiple days to record.

Another thing to note is that you cannot get up close to the musical performances. That’s because the crowd is ‘carefully curated’ for these performances–it’s no coincidence that everyone in the audience is photogenic and just so happens to be wearing the latest holiday styles sold at the Disney Store!

There are reserved viewing areas at Walt Disney World for all of these performances, and everyone you see at home in the audience is typically a Cast Member and their families/invited guests. The general public is allowed to watch from farther back–that’s where I watched, off to the right side of the Central Plaza.

I’m perfectly fine with this, as it’s still easily possible to hear the performances and (vaguely) make out the performers. It’s like the equivalent of having nosebleed seats at a concert. (The up-close photos in this post were shot with a telephoto lens and cropped.) Hearing the music and seeing the fireworks is fine by me, and I was able to do that from my spot in the Hub.

Watching the musical opening, in particular, was a really fun experience. This is a lengthy musical medley with quick transitions and, to this clumsy and uncoordinated man’s eye, a lot of fancy and tough dance moves. As a result, it took multiple takes to get this right, but not nearly as many as last year.

Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro did a great job, with the latter being a fantastic addition. Last year, it was both of the Hough siblings who performed and, nothing against Derek Hough, but Alfonso was a lot more fun. He helped hype up the crowd, cracked several jokes, and just had a great dude. I know it’s a mistake to judge celebrities based on superficial experiences–good or bad–but he struck me as a cool and nice guy.

The thing that did make this take longer was the presence of (spoiler alert) Disney characters on stage during the 2024 “The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular.” For whatever reason, they were recorded differently (separately for the most part, it seemed) from the core performances. I’ll be curious to watch the special when it airs to see whether there are tighter shots of the characters.

In any case, it was especially fun to watch in person because there are fireworks in the 2024 “The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” and, like everything else, there were also multiple takes of the pyro.

Getting to a certain point in the routine triggered fireworks, then the performers would goof up, and it’d all have to be done again. If the pyro was triggered (and it often was), there would be a longer delay between takes, as they’d have to wait for the fireworks to be reset and the smoke to clear.

In aggregate, this was the second-most pyro I’ve ever seen in a single day at Walt Disney World…behind only last year’s filming of the special. That’s really saying something, since we’ve done New Year’s Eve and Fourth of July at both Magic Kingdom and EPCOT countless times!

I also watched a bunch of musical performances, all after Happily Ever After.

Last year, I made the mistake of showing up prior to the fireworks and getting caught in the crowd and not really seeing anything. So this year, I figured I’d watch the parade filming during the day, and then revisit the Cinderella Castle Forecourt Stage immediately after the fireworks.

This turned out to be a big mistake. As I was eating dinner, I received a text message from a friend who knew I was in Magic Kingdom for the filming expressing excitement about the Elton John performance. I thought he was kidding, as there had been “rumors” about Sir Elton recording for each of the last two years.

He was not. Here I was, obviously enjoying a fine meal at Pecos Bill, while Elton John was performing in front of Cinderella Castle only a few hundred yards away. By the time I rushed over to catch it, there was nothing to catch. So I’ll be watching that for the first time on December 1 like everyone else. Suffice to say, I didn’t leave the hub for the rest of the night after that!

Otherwise, the performances were a lot of fun and the visuals, as always, were impressive. There’s a reason I’ve done this two years in a row, and in all likelihood, will be back for a third. Well, the real reason is that this special is shot during the opening weekend of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas, Disney Jollywood Nights, and the kickoff to Christmas season. So I’m already at Walt Disney World for all of that. But I could avoid Magic Kingdom during the filming, as in the past, but instead have purposefully chosen to visit during it.

That’s because spending all day in Magic Kingdom for the ABC holiday special filming is a unique experience. It’s a ton of fun to see Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade filmed during the day (and for free!) and the performances at night for the Thanksgiving special, complete with tons of fireworks, are also fantastic. If you don’t mind somewhat elevated crowds over the holiday weekend and parts of the park being closed off (not rides, but walkways) while recording is happening, it’s a great time to visit!

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

Were you in Magic Kingdom during the day or at night when the Holiday Specials were filmed? Did you watch the parade, musical performances on stage, or both? What was your experience? Have you been in Walt Disney World or Disneyland during past filmings? Would you like to attend? Thoughts on ABC’s Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade or the Thanksgiving weekend special? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!