Disneyland At Christmas & Mini Disney Haul

by Mia M.

Merry Christmas Eve, people!

Prepare your pitchforks, because I have an opinion you’re going to want to stab me for: I haven’t felt very festive this year. I know, truly scandalous. In my defense . . . we don’t have a bloody Christmas tree! How’s a girl meant to feel like it’s Christmas if she walks into a Christmas tree-less home?

Update: as of 18th December (the date of writing this because, come on, scheduled content for the win) we now actually have a Christmas tree. It only has two decorations, way too many fairy lights (there is most definitely such a thing) and loads of mismatched Christmas crackers . . . but it’s a tree.

Anyways, the point of this meandering introduction is to say that, while I have not been feeling overly festive, the one time that I felt practically punched in the face with Christmas spirit was when I went to Disneyland Paris with my best friend on the 14th December!

First of all, may I just say – this is most definitely going to become a tradition. Disneyland surpassed all of my expectations and evoked nostalgia for a childhood I didn’t know I had. I mean, of course I know that I was at one point a child – but I never considered myself to be the largest Disney fan. Until I visited and realised just how much they make.

For example: Star Wars. Did anyone else know that was Disney? I missed that memo! Oh – and Toy Story. Where did that come from? I thought Toy Story was Pixar!

It feels like my entire childhood was shaped by them – and walking into Disneyland, something I genuinely thought was just going to be pretty and make a decent blog post, but not much more, was a somewhat emotional experience. I felt that sense of childlike wonder again.

As I was perusing the gift shop, feeling almost forcedly excited, it kind of hit me that the impact Disney has, while amazing, is also pretty scary. Not from the “oh Disney are going to ruin the world and brainwash kids” perspective, but merely the fact that they could. This is why competition in business is important, kids – no one business should have complete market dominance, the potential to go wrong is crazy.

That’s an issue for a whole other post though.

The first thing that hit me, as we walked in, was it’s so damn pretty. It rained pretty much the entire time we were there and I was too scared to take out my camera (I have no idea if it’s waterproof), so there aren’t as many pictures as I’d like.

It’s an adorable, fairytale-esque village set up with loads of simply gorgeous buildings selling bakery treats, clothes, decorations and more. Walking into it you really feel like you’re walking into Disney; that kind of fairytale setting. Not only beautiful to look at on the outside, the inside of the shops and cafes are also pretty damn stunning. You can really tell a lot of effort went into making and maintaining everything; it’s a wonderfully immersive experience.

Naturally, I had to buy some baked goods. For testing purposes . . . promise.

Oh – and that iconic Disney castle? Just as gorgeous as you hope it will be. You can’t see in the image, but the turrets have lights on them which flicker to make it look like the castle’s glistening.

I think I have some photos of it in the dark that will give you a better idea of the effect . . .

Super fucking pretty.

I loved all the little touches, the things you might not necessarily find you eyes drawn to at first glance, like the tiny Tinkerbells on top of some of the streetlights.

As I’m sure you can imagine, there were so many absolutely gorgeous Christmas decorations everywhere; it was impossible to not feel at least a little heartwarmed.

On top of this – and to be honest, we would have been happy with just this because the atmosphere was amazing, just to be able to walk around this pretty little mini world – the rides and mini worlds were great too. The rollercoasters (although sadly few) were awesome – but even the slower rides were good too. In particular, there is a Pirates Of The Caribbean ride that is amazing. I couldn’t take photos (sorry!) but there’s essentially mini movie sets that you ride through with robotic/puppet things (that look really real) that act out scenes and it’s so artful and mind-blowing. The design and thought that went into it – and the skill – was visible in the result.

The next part is where we got really lucky – we almost missed it too! (Also, you can kind of see how wet it was at this point, so I apologise because we were soaking and my camera was not taking good photos in it at all.)

Basically, Disneyland Paris is celebrating its 25th anniversary – which explains a lot of the random 25s we’d been ignoring all day – so we got to see a massive parade. The floats were fucking amazing and all the performers were really good.

Original Disney crew!

Toy Story!

While we’re here, I don’t know if anyone’s ever seen Jack Whitehall’s bit about Lion King but it’s fucking hilarious, so look it up if you haven’t. Also, you have eyes, so I’m not going to incessantly write the movies of the floats out.

All in all, I would highly recommend Disneyland – we had a fantastic time. The atmosphere and scenery is lovely – and it’s actually a really fun place, which I wasn’t expecting at all. Now, of course, there were loads of gift and souveneir shops calling my name . . . so what did I buy?

Completely reasonably, I bought a few Christmas tree decorations – the only two on our tree as of right now because we’re shit at Christmas.

Aren’t they just bloody adorable? I actually bought a Frozen one, but it got destroyed on the way back, so RIP Elsa.

Anyways, that’s this post . . . concluded. Honestly, I loved Paris and I loved Disneyland – so I’d love to make this a little tradition and do an annual Christmas or Halloween trip. If you do get the chance to go, jump at it. I thought it would be really immature and for kids, but it’s definitely not, plus it’s in Paris (and right next to a train station, which is super convenient), so who’s complaining?

I hope you guys enjoyed this (sorry about the photos, though). Have you ever been to Disneyland? Would you? And my Christmas decorations – how bloody cute are they? Let me know your thoughts down below – and I hope you’re all having a fantastic Christmas Eve and you have a beautiful Christmas tomorrow!