Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade (previously known as Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Parade) is the annual holiday parade that performs at the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World in Florida during the Christmas season, as part of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. It is the Magic Kingdom's counterpart to Disneyland's A Christmas Fantasy Parade in California, as both parades are recorded at the start of December for the "Disney Parks Magical Christmas Celebration" broadcast. In recent years, only Mickey's Once Upon A Christmastime Parade has been recorded for the program, while Disneyland hosts some of the special guest bands or performers invited to be on the special alongside the other Walt Disney World theme parks and other Disney establishments, such as Aulani on Hawaii. On the Winter Solstice of December 21st, (or the first day of winter), the parade temporarily replaces the Festival of Fantasy Parade as the Magic Kingdom's daytime parade until its final performance on December 31st, New Years Eve, at which point, on New Years Day, January 1st, the Festival of Fantasy Parade resumes being the daytime parade while the Mickey's Once Upon A Christmastime Parade is placed back into storage until the next holiday season begins on November 1st.
==History==
It debuted in 2007, as a replacement for the very similar Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Parade; the prior parade had been running since 1989. The current Christmas parade consists of elves, toy soldiers, reindeer, gingerbread men, and Disney characters in their holiday finery.
The music in this parade is very catchy, and is available online. It is not the same as the parade that is shown on ABC on Christmas Day, which is filmed at Walt Disney World the first weekend of December each year. Because of the parade being recorded for the Christmas Day broadcast, all audio recordings played from the floats of the characters is temporarily muted. The audio is unmuted for all other performances outside of the broadcast recording performance.
In 2021, following Walt Disney World's reopening, Magic Kingdom announced that an updated version of the parade would return for the new holiday event, Disney Very Merriest After Hours, as part of Walt Disney World's 50th anniversary celebration, but Goofy’s Gumball Machine Float, the festive ballroom dancers, and Santa’s Workshop, as well as several other segments, were removed. Those parts were later restored and the parade returned to full strength by the time of the parade's 40th anniversary in 2023 with the Disney Parks Magical Christmas Celebration and Disney 100 Years of Wonder festivities to ring out the end of the company's Centennial Anniversary year.
In 2024, the soundtrack was replaced. Anna and Elsa were also upgraded to wearing their Christmas dresses from Olaf's Frozen Adventure, joining Belle in her Christmas dress from Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas that she's worn for the parade in previous years.
All female face characters in the parade, including the Disney Princesses with their husbands, Alice, and Wendy, are wearing their winter variant of their trademark outfits for the event. The winter variant of their outfits are rarely seen outside of the parade, especially for meet-and-greets, due to it being weather and temperature dependent. The parade's theme makes wearing the winter outfits mandatory, regardless of the heat, humidity, and temperature in the Magic Kingdom at the time since the parade only lasts for about 30-45 minutes from start to finish, thus preventing any Cast Members from suffering heat fatigue being suited up for too long during the procession from the entrance gate in Frontierland to the exit gate in Main Street, U.S.A..
Should some of the parts of the parade, such as Cinderella's carriage or the float most of the royal couples ride on with the Fairy Godmother, be down for repairs or maintenance, Disney and the Cast Members have contingency plans in place for such situations, such as having Cinderella and Prince Charming ride on the main Disney Princess float with the Fairy Godmother and their fellow royal couples, or having all eight of the Princesses seen in the parade: Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Tiana, and Rapunzel, ride on Snow White's gazebo float together. Other Cast Members will take over as supporting performers to help pick up the slack due to the parade's reorganization due to floats or vehicles undergoing repairs or maintenance and not being ready in time for the parade.
==See also==
*A Christmas Fantasy Parade
*Disney Christmas Stories
*Mickey's Dazzling Christmas Parade
*Santa Mickey's Toy-riffic Street Party
*Disney Winter Magic Cavalcade
==References==
Category:Walt Disney Parks and Resorts parades
Category:Magic Kingdom entertainment
Category:Magic Kingdom attractions
Category:Christmas attractions
Category:Pinocchio
Category:Alice in Wonderland
Category:Peter Pan
Category:Mary Poppins
Category:Winnie the Pooh
Category:Frozen
Category:Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Category:Cinderella
Category:Sleeping Beauty
Category:The Little Mermaid
Category:Beauty and the Beast
Category:Aladdin
Category:Song of the South
Category:Splash Mountain
Category:The Princess and the Frog
Category:Wreck-It Ralph
Category:Toy Story
Category:Donald Duck
Category:Daisy Duck
Category:Pluto
Category:Mickey Mouse
Category:Minnie Mouse
Category:The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh