It’s the most wonderful time of year at the happiest place on Earth and we were fortunate to experience all of the wonderful things about Winter at DisneyWorld — including holiday food offerings, the all-new Jollywood Nights experience at Hollywood Studios and holiday decor galore!

There’s always so much to enjoy at Walt Disney World Parks and when it comes to the holiday season we broke down our five favorite things.

1) Spectacular Shows 

One of the highlights of our visit to Hollywood Studios was going to see The Nightmare Before Christmas sing-along show. We had so much fun at this one, especially during the musical numbers.  We also got a chance to experience “snow” thanks to a little manufactured weather sprinkling down from the ceiling at the end. Disney Holidays in Hollywood is another seasonal show available at Hollywood Studios. Guests can expect more of a musical variety show from this one, which features a whole ensemble of singers and dancers as well as some character performances.

2) Seasonal Events

We visited Hollywood Studios during their Jollywood Nights special event. The event included a lot of specialty food and cocktails and certain rides required the use of the virtual queue.  We enjoyed mixing and mingling with the cast members and found the park was less crowded during the special event. Jollywood Nights also called for old Hollywood glam attire and we really loved getting dressed up for a night at the park.

3) Holiday Foods And Crafted Cocktails

During our visit to Disney World we used the Disney Skyliner to visit several of the resorts for a foodie crawl. food and drink offerings were really amazing and unique to each hotel. We loved the dumplings at Disney’s Polynesian Village and the drinks at the Enchanted Rose bar at The Grand Floridian were probably our favorites. The bar there includes four sophisticated spaces each inspired by the Disney live-action film Beauty and the Beast. The bar glows from the light of a magnificent golden chandelier inspired by Belle’s flowing ball gown. The third resort we visited was Disney’s Contemporary Resort, where we stopped by Steakhouse 71 for drinks and appetizers. The restaurant features classic cocktails and cuisine with a modern twist that celebrates the 1970s and pays tribute to Walt and Lillian Disney. We really liked their burger sliders — but honestly we’ve stayed at the Contemporary before and Steakhouse 71 has some of our favorite food across the park resorts.

Separate from the Foodie Crawl, we also visited Jack Lindsey’s Holiday Hangar Bar at Disney Springs. We tested out the special holiday menu and enjoyed the hot chocolate flight (very sweet but good for sharing with friends!) and LOVED the turkey meatballs.

4) Incredible Decor

For the holidays select Disney Resort hotels feature a gingerbread display.  We visited the life-sized Gingerbread House in the lobby of The Grand Floridian which was made from over 10,000 pieces of gingerbread. There are also 24 hidden Mickey’s found throughout the display.

We learned that culinary teams spend up to seven months planning and building the gingerbread displays. The culinary team at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa starts mixing fragrant dough in May, letting it cure a full two months before it is baked. Individual shapes, from shingles to Mickey cookies, are baked and decorated throughout the summer and then stored for “construction” in November. The house itself takes three days to build.

This year, guests will once again be able to enjoy the stunning works of culinary art – including a new

display – in six resort locations:

• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge

• Disney’s Beach Club Resort

• Disney’s BoardWalk Resort

• Disney’s Contemporary Resort

• Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

• Disney’s Yacht Club Resort (featuring a new display)

We also really loved the special Christmas tress which were decorated so beautifully throughout the parks. The ones at Disney Springs were some of our favorites.

5) Character Meet & Greets And Photo Ops

One of our favorite parts about visiting Disney World any time of year is being able to meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and so many other characters. But we particularly recommend that guests looking to capture their special moments with the characters take advantage of Disney PhotoPass Service which can create festive photo fun this holiday season with new limited-time Magic Shots and props throughout Walt Disney World Resort. This photo featuring Kermit and Miss Piggy is a great example!