Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade
annual broadcast of a parade
The Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade is an American television special that airs on Christmas Day annually on ABC, airing live and taped, primarily inside the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, approximately one month prior to Christmas Day.
Past shows have included segments from the three other Walt Disney World theme parks (Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom), water parks and other entertainment areas, as well as the original Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, and all the overseas Disney parks - Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland. Other segments of the annual broadcast included Walt Disney Studios, Disney Adventures, Disney Institute and Disney Cruise Line. The program has aired annually since 1983, except for 2000, when Disney aired Walt Disney World 'Twas The Night Before Christmas, a Santa tracking special featuring parade excerpts that aired in primetime on Christmas Eve.
Description
The parade goes down Main Street, U.S.A. It features appearances of Disney characters, including Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Pluto, Scrooge McDuck, and Chip 'n' Dale, as well as floats featuring celebrities, musical performances, marching bands from various schools and community groups across the US, and highlights of events and properties at Disney theme parks and other Disney productions, in addition to those of the other components of the Walt Disney group (like Star Wars, Marvel Studios and Pixar) that are featured in the event. Like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, it concludes with the arrival of Santa Claus and one of the most anticipated highlights every year is seeing Walt Disney's iconic Babes in Toyland soldiers from the 1961 film.
Currently, most of the program is taped in November (in the 2000s, even until early December) for broadcast on Christmas Day. However, until the early 1990s, the parade was broadcast live on Christmas Day on CBS, with whom Disney had partnered for Thanksgiving and New Year celebrations as well. In 1996, the program moved to ABC after Disney bought the network through its acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC that year. The parade continued to broadcast live on ABC on Christmas Day with another show recorded two days earlier for international use and/or as a back-up in case of weather issues.
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