It’s that time of year again when the parks look like a holiday postcard and feel like a competitive endurance sport. Every Thanksgiving weekend, thousands of families descend on Orlando and Anaheim like it’s some sacred pilgrimage, and honestly, I’m still trying to figure out what the draw is. Don’t color me wrong, I love the holiday season at Disney. The décor, the background music, the excuse to eat cookies at 9 am? Great. But the holiday itself? Hard pass. My family is big on tradition, and with young kids, the idea of spending Thanksgiving or Christmas shoulder-to-shoulder with forty thousand strangers just doesn’t hit the same. And frankly, even if I wanted to be in the parks that day, I can’t say the appeal is obvious.
Because let’s be honest: a Disney holiday crowd isn’t festive. It’s feral. You’ve got wall-to-wall bodies packed so tight you’re practically sharing DNA with the person next to you, and everyone’s one broken stroller wheel away from a full emotional meltdown. Instead of goodwill and cheer, it’s giving Seasonal Hunger Games. Lightning Lanes vanish as rides go down like dominoes, benches become an endangered species, and every walkway becomes a slow-moving current of frustration. If this is the spirit of the season, then the season needs therapy.
The irony? The holidays around the holidays are spectacular. Early November? Magical. First two weeks of December? Bliss. Mid-January leftovers? Chef’s kiss. The parks look incredible without the chaos of fifty states’ worth of extended families desperately trying to recreate a Christmas card memory while simultaneously losing their sanity. Disney does seasonal ambiance better than anyone; it’s the humans who ruin it.
So honestly, I’d rather spend my holiday weekend at home in comfortable, quiet civilization, possibly eating copious amounts of pie straight from the dish, while planning my next Disney vacation, instead of being in the parks just surviving it. For me, the holiday season is worth every minute. The holiday itself? Completely overrated. But that’s just my take. What’s yours?
