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 (such as Pluto pushing Santa's Sleigh in the grand finale for many years).
The current version of the parade used since 2013 (except 2020) 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 (Duffy the Disney Bear in the 2011 and 2012 versions) sits beside her.
Toy soldiers from Babes in Toyland march along the parade route playing their trumpets and snare drums.
Santa's Mail Room Unit:
Mailroom float, with Mickey and Minnie greeting park guests, accompanied by Chip and Dale. This float used to have Mrs. Claus on it, but she now appears alongside the dancing elves.
Donald (Pluto until 2013; Duffy the Disney Bear in 2014) 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. This unit used to feature Pooh and Tigger riding on sleighs. Eeyore pulled his own sleigh. They lasted until 2016.
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. This float used to feature Mickey and Minnie ice skating, but they were moved to the mailroom float.
A Recipe for Gingerbread Treats Unit:
Clarabelle Cow and 6 Gingerbread Cookies dance down the street.
6 Candy Bakers (3 Male, 3 Female) help Goofy and Pluto (Max Goof until 2013), 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 (Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters) 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.
8 Finale Dancers (4 male, 4 female) 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 (commonly 3) 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.
Minnie Mouse is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As the longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a red or pink bow, blue polka-dotted dress, white bloomers and low-heeled shoes occasionally with ribbons on them. The Mickey Mouse comic strip story "The Gleam" by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse, although this is seldom used.
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.
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 animated Christmas anthology 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. It is the computer-animated sequel to Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999). It features Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, Max, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and Scrooge McDuck, in five different segments rather than three like its predecessor. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
SpectroMagic was a nighttime parade presented in Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort. It was introduced in 1991 as part of the park's 20th-anniversary celebrations, replacing the Main Street Electrical Parade. The parade originally ran from 1991 to 1999, then returned from 2001 to 2010.
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party is an event hosted at Disney's Magic Kingdom in Florida on select evenings in November and December leading up to Christmas. It features holiday entertainment such as a parade, dance parties, character meet-and-greets, and complimentary treat stations. The event runs from 7:00 pm to midnight, but party guests may enter beginning at 4:00 pm. The event requires purchasing a separate ticket from the general admission ticket counter.
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.
Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse is a 2001 direct-to-video Christmas comedy fantasy crossover animated film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, with the animation production being done at Toon City Animation in Manila, Philippines. It is the first of two direct-to-video films spin off from the Disney Channel animated television series House of Mouse, the other being Mickey's House of Villains. The events of the film take place during the second season of House of Mouse.
Disney's Fantillusion!, sometimes known by its full name: Disney's Fantillusion Parade, and sometimes called Fandy, was a regularly scheduled night-time parade, created by Ron Logan, that performed nightly at Disneyland Paris during its summer and winter seasons. It featured floats and live performers covered in thousands of electronically controlled lights and a synchronized soundtrack controlled by a Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) tone broadcast along the parade route. The parade was originally created for Tokyo Disneyland where it ran for six years from 1995 to 2001. An updated version of the Main Street Electrical Parade replaced Disney's Fantillusion at Tokyo Disneyland known as the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights as Fantillusion was sent to Paris to become the Disney's Fantillusion Parade.
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.
Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade was a parade at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort, and Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris. The parade first premiered on October 1, 2001, as part of the Walt Disney World Resort's 100 Years of Magic Celebration. The parade is a procession of characters riding in highly themed cars down the streets of Disney's Hollywood Studios in true Hollywood style.
"A Disney Christmas Gift" is an animated Christmas television special produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was originally broadcast on CBS on December 4, 1982, as part of the Walt Disney anthology series.
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".
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.
Mickey's Good Deed is a 1932 animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists. Set during the Christmas season and the contemporary Great Depression, the cartoon centers on Mickey's act of charity to bring Christmas to a poor family. The film was directed by Burt Gillett and features the voices of Walt Disney as Mickey and Pinto Colvig as Pluto. It was the 50th Mickey Mouse short, and the 14th of that year.
Pluto's Christmas Tree is a 1952 Mickey Mouse cartoon in which Pluto and Mickey cut down a Christmas tree that Chip n' Dale live in. It was the 125th short in the Mickey Mouse film series to be released, and the second for that year. While the chipmunks are usually antagonists of Donald Duck, they have pestered Pluto before, in Private Pluto (1943), Squatter's Rights (1946) and Food for Feudin' (1950).
Paint the Night Parade was a nighttime parade at Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and Disneyland. The Hong Kong version premiered on September 11, 2014, as part of the park's 9th anniversary expansion. The Disneyland version debuted on May 22, 2015, as part of the park's 60th anniversary Diamond Celebration. The parade is a spiritual successor to the long-running Main Street Electrical Parade, which has appeared at numerous Disney parks in several different incarnations since June 17, 1972. At Disneyland Park in California, Paint the Night made its last regular performance on September 5, 2016, and returned as a seasonal offering for the 2016 holiday season. The original Main Street Electrical Parade returned to Disneyland Park on January 19, 2017 for a limited-time run.
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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