How do you 'do' Christmas (day) @ WDW?

[Pixie Power]

Do you get a mini :tree: for your resort room? Do you do :gift: that AM as usual, just as if you were @ home? Do you do :stock:? What time to we absolutely need to be in a park by on that day?

This will be our 1st Christmas Day @ WDW and I am desperate for help in planning the logistics of this. Our DDs are 12 & 6, so the 6 yr. old still has the belief in :santa2:, etc. so I also need ideas of how to pull off giving them the trip early from him (or it could be from Rudolph, as he gave us our New Year's Trip to WDW for Christmas last year, or maybe Rudolph & Clarice).

TIA!:santa3:

[faline]

We've only been once over the actual holiday and our daughter was college age at the time.

We drove on that trip so I packed a small table top tree as well as a decorative door cover. We decided to exchange only gifts we had gotten for each other while at Disney so a few days before we all headed off in different directions to our "shopping" for each other. On Christmas eve, we exchanged all our gifts. Traditionally, we have Chinese food for dinner on Christmas Eve so as a trade-off, we ate at Kona Cafe that evening.

On Christmas day, my husband and I got up really early and went off to the Magic Kingdom - in those days the holiday parade was shown live on Christmas morning. As that park got too crowded, we shifted over to Epcot. At some point, we met up with my daughter and her fiance for Christmas dinner at the Concourse steakhouse.

[Faver]

Christmas is my favorite time that we go to WDW....even though it's crowded the tempature is cool to comfortable, and quite enjoyable!

I always bring a small Christmas with ornaments form the dollar store. I know some families bring Christmas lights and window decals and decorate their hotel windows.

As far as gifts, we have "Early Christmas". Whenever we travel at Christmas (since I was a child), we always have early Christmas at home. This way you don't have to drag a bunch of gifts on your vacation, perhaps on a couple. Early Christmas is always held on the Saturday before we leave for vacation.

When my son was younger, I would pack a couple of smaller gifts for him to unwrap on Christmas day. But as he grew older that wasn't neccessary, he enjoyed getting his gifts earlier, and sometimes having them or using them on vacation!

And don't forget to have a special Christmas dinner at one of the great restaurants. We always go to Cape May Cafe @ the BW.

[awaggett]

We were there a few years ago over the actual holiday. We shipped a table-top tree via fedex that I had picked up at Target, along with some lights and window decals. We didn't have kids with us, so we picked names out of a hat and one gift for that person.

On Christmas Day we decided to avoid the parks--we resort-hopped to enjoy all the decorations. We ate dinner that night at Cali Grill and watched the fireworks--it was really nice!

[Lynn J Mc]

We drive down and I took a small table top tree. My niece was almost 3 at the time. She visited Santa at the mall and told him where she would be so he could find her. She got just a little bit of stuff from him. Including her Cinderella dress and some other stuff we purchased at DW. As for the adults, we did not do gifts. We spent the money at DW and had a great time. It was hands-down our best Christmas ever. We didn't miss the hassle of shopping and cooking. I didn't even put up a tree. It was wonderful. Christmas day we went to AK and then park-hopped to MK after dinner at the Rainforest. The park did close to outside guests but Disney resort guests could still get in. Have a wonderful time.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

We're going for Christmas (Me, mom and my son) and we bought a small tree on clearance last year to bring. We are not buying gifts for each other beforehand, but are buying each others Christmas at WDW and will open them in the room Christmas morning/and or Christmas Eve night....we are spending the day at Epcot and doing the Candlelight Processional...we have a 145 for Biergarten so we can get to the 5pm show....just some advice, if you MUST do MK Christmas day, get there early and plan to stay all day.....we went to MK New Year's Eve once and it was at capacity by 1000 am...it was elbow to elbow...I would suggest a different park for Christmas or Christmas Eve......Have a great time!:gift::stock::deer:

[krose78]

We brought a 4ft tree and put it on the table. and decorated it with disney character cut outs and string lights. We left out cookies and milk for Santa and gift were gotten out of the car after the kids were asleep(which wasn't too long after a long day in the parks). We opened presents in the morning and watched the Christmas parade on TV and then headed over to Epcot. Not very crowded, busy but not crowded.

[tes4kas]

A few years back we did Christmas at WDW and it was one of the most wonderful Christmases my family has had. At the time, my children were 8, 6 and 4 so all of Christmas magic was still very real to them. We had not told them about the trip ahead of time. On December 23, we woke them up very early to tell them that Santa had come early with a special present. My oldest daughter was so happy she started to cry with joy. Before they knew it we were off to the airport and by afternoon that day we were in the Magic Kingdom.

We packed a small 2 ½ foot tall artificial tree with lights and discarded it before the trip home to make space for our Disney souvenirs. We went with smaller presents that year to save space and $. Santa was still able to find us at WDW, because of course he gave us the tickets in the first place. We were fortunate enough to get breakfast at the castle on Christmas morning. I felt bad for the cast members working that day and wish they could know what a terrific memory they made me and my family. Crowds were no problem on the 23rdand 24th but after that, the parks were packed.
I wish you the best holiday ever. Enjoy the magic this Christmas. :santa:

[ccnykamp]

If you want to go to a park, pick one and get there for opening. They do fill up and they do close the gates at the smaller parks.

[Jeff]

We have been several times over Christmas Day. We always buy a small tree when we get there from Target or Walmart. We buy some gifts at Downtown Disney for Christmas morning but do most of our gifts when we get home.

We get up early, open gifts and head to MK as it opens. We do a ride or two, get our Christmas Day picture taken with the castle in the background, have a Main Street Bakery breakfast then hop the monorail over to Epcot. We spend the rest of the day at Epcot and see the Candlelight Processional in the evening.

It's always a great day.

[Pixie Power]

Thank you all for the wonderful information. It's given me some ideas as to how to do our plans. This is getting so exciting! DH & I can't wait!

Thanks again! :mickey: