When the parade originally debuted in 1995, it was vastly different, with all the units arranged in a different order then they are today. The original float ordering was the Opening, Santa's Mail Room, Santa's Toy Factory, A Recipe for Gingerbread Treats, Greetings from a Winter Wonderland, The Candlelight Christmas Ball, and Christmas Homecoming. Many of the floats in the original version were reused from the Very Merry Christmas Parade and the characters on the floats would vary.
The current version of the parade used since 2013 described here has seven units, each consisting of at least one float. The following are descriptions of each of the seven units:
Opening Unit:
A music box float, with a dancing ballerina on top of a revolving platform, and a stuffed Teddy Bear sits beside her.
Toy soldiers from Babes in Toyland march along the parade route playing their trumpets, snare drums, bass drums and cymbals.
Santa's Mail Room Unit:
Mailroom float, with Mickey and Minnie greeting park guests, accompanied by Chip and Dale.
Donald sits on the roof of the mailroom, trying to place the star on top of the Christmas tree.
4 Female Mailroom Elves and 2 Male Mailroom Elves perform with mail bags along and on top of the float.
Welcome to A Winter Wonderland Unit:
8 snowpeople scurry along, 4 male, 4 female. Four skiers swing around them.
A snowy Christmas Tree rolls down the parade route.
6 female skaters skate down the parade route on roller skates.
Elsa and Anna stand on top of an ice-themed float with an Olaf figure.
A Recipe for Gingerbread Treats Unit:
Clarabelle Cow and 6 Gingerbread Cookies dance down the street.
6 Candy Bakers help Goofy and Pluto, who are on the Gingerbread float, wreak some havoc.
Beauty and the Beast in the Christmas Ball unit of "A Christmas Fantasy" Parade at Disneyland.
Candlelight Christmas Ball Unit:
Lady Tremaine, Drizella, and Anastasia are not invited and therefore walk in front of the unit while playing with guests.
4 Ball Dancers dance beautifully in front of the Candlelight Ball float accompanied by Snow White and her prince.
Sheriff Woody rides on a rocking horse that is on top of a Toy Block float.
The Green Army Men ride on top of the giant Toy Factory float making toys.
6 Toy Factory Elves dance alongside the float.
Buzz Lightyear rides in a spaceship that is on top of a Toy Block float.
Santa's Finale Unit:
8 Finale Dancers dance and sing to Christmas carols in front of a moving Christmas Tree adorned with jewels.
Santa Claus sits in his sleigh on the Finale float led by his 8 Reindeer.
Two Finale Elves dance on the back of the Finale float.
Two or Three Elf Rope Carriers end the parade.
Trivia
For the 2015 and 2016 holiday seasons, this parade ran during the day and in the early-evening as opposed to nighttime because Disney opted to run Paint the Night with no holiday overlay unlike Tokyo's DreamLights (which has a holiday overlay) during the holiday season.
Clarabelle Cow is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As an anthropomorphic cow, Clarabelle is one of Minnie Mouse's best friends. She was once depicted as the girlfriend of Horace Horsecollar, although now she is often paired with Goofy.
Horace Horsecollar is a cartoon character created in 1929 at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Horace is a tall anthropomorphic black horse and is one of Mickey Mouse's best friends. Characterized as a boastful show-off, Horace served as Mickey’s sidekick in Disney's early black-and-white shorts.
The Main Street Electrical Parade is a nighttime parade, created by Robert Jani and project director Ron Miziker. It features floats and live performers covered in over 600,000 electronically controlled LED lights, and uses a synchronized soundtrack triggered by radio control along key areas of the parade route.
Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas is a 2004 American Direct-to-video animated Christmas anthology fantasy film produced by Disneytoon Studios and directed by Matthew O'Callaghan. The film includes stories directed by Peggy Holmes, O'Callaghan, Theresa Cullen, and Carole Holliday.
Babes in Toyland is a 1961 American Christmas musical film directed by Jack Donohue and produced by Walt Disney Productions. It stars Ray Bolger as Barnaby, Tommy Sands as Tom Piper, Annette Funicello as Mary Contrary, and Ed Wynn as the Toymaker.
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party is a Walt Disney World event hosted at Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida on select evenings from 7:00 pm to midnight in November and December leading up to Christmas. It features several activities such as a parade, dance parties, character meet-and-greets, and complimentary treat stations.
Haunted Mansion Holiday is a seasonal overlay of The Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland that blends the settings and characters of the original Haunted Mansion with those of the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. Taking inspiration from "The Night Before Christmas", the attraction retells the story of Jack Skellington visiting the Haunted Mansion on Christmas Eve, leaving holiday chaos in his wake.
Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams premiered on May 5, 2005 as part of the Happiest Homecoming on Earth, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Disneyland in California. Conceived by VP Parades and Spectaculars, Steve Davison, the parade celebrates the dreams of Disney characters and includes Disney characters such as Mickey, Minnie, Tinker Bell, Cinderella, Snow White, Simba, Alice and Mad Hatter, Pinocchio, Belle and Beast, Ariel, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. The parade includes eight floats which include Getaway to Dreams, Dream of Enchantment, Dream of Laughter, Dream of Another World, Dream of Imagination, Dream of Adventure, and Dreams Come True. It closed in November 2008 before the Holidays at Disneyland without notice to the public.
Disney on Parade was a daytime parade of the Hong Kong Disneyland theme park in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It debuted on rehearsal days throughout June 2005, before the grand opening of Hong Kong Disneyland on September 12. The parade takes a few floats and themes from Tokyo Disneyland's former daytime parade named Disney on Parade: 100 Years of Magic.
America on Parade ("AOP") was a parade created for Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom for the United States Bicentennial and for Disneyland's 20th and The Magic Kingdom's 5th anniversaries.
Believe... In Holiday Magic is a holiday fireworks show at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, launched in 2000. The show runs for much of the Disneyland Resort's holiday season, which typically runs from the second weekend of November to the first weekend of the following January.
Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) is a separate-admission Halloween-themed event held annually during the months of August, September, October, and November at the Magic Kingdom theme park of the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, near Orlando, and at Disneyland Paris Resort outside Paris, France. The party began as a response to the Halloween Horror Nights event at Universal Studios Florida. Disney's event caters to a traditional family atmosphere, whereas Universal's has more of a "fright-centered" event with their monsters.
The World According To Goofy was a parade at Disneyland which opened in June 1992 and closed about five months later to begin a 3 month refurbishment in the It's a Small World area, which included repainting the façade to a different color and adding a gift shop. It contained floats showing the history of the world with Goofy-esqe characters portraying real ones. For example, one of the floats showed a large dinosaur that had some of Goofy's features, called the "Goofasaurus". The parade was shown in celebration of Goofy's 60th "birthday".
Pixar Play Parade was a parade at the Disneyland Resort. The parade features floats and characters based on Disney·Pixar films such as Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles and Toy Story. In a first for Disney California Adventure, the floats feature small water jets that shoot water into the crowd of spectators. The music used in the parade is derived from Hong Kong Disneyland's Mickey's WaterWorks Parade, both having the same tunes with changes in lyrics.
Jubilation! was a daytime parade from Tokyo Disneyland that ran from 2008 to 2013.
Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights ~Christmas~ is the Christmas version of the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights. It opened in 2007 and runs during the holidays. The parade includes the regular floats and characters dressed up for the holidays. The soundtrack is almost identical to the regular, but has a holiday theme.
Paint the Night Parade was a nighttime parade at Hong Kong Disneyland on Lantau Island, Hong Kong and at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.
Disney Stars on Parade is the current parade in Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris. The parade premiered on 26 March 2017, as part of the park's 25th anniversary celebration. The parade celebrates the discovery of the lands of imagination, represented by various Disney and Pixar films, such as Toy Story, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Finding Nemo, SleepingBeauty, and Frozen.
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