Guide to the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Holidays

The 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays runs from November 29 to December 30. What’s returning? What’s new? What can you do? One thing to know up front: many activities in this popular event are included with the price of your ticket. Tap any item in the list to jump straight ahead, or just keep reading to learn about the whole shebang!

• Festival of the Holidays Entertainment
• Festival of the Holidays Family Fun
• Holiday Kitchens
• Merch!
• Festival of the Holidays Tips and FAQ

Festival of the Holidays Entertainment

There’s plenty of entertainment at the Festival; it would be hard to see everything in one day. The Candlelight Processional keeps a fixed schedule; for other acts check the My Disney Experience app for times. TouringPlans subscribers can find the most efficient itinerary by adding these shows to custom plans.

Candlelight Processional

The Candlelight Processional is performed every evening during the Festival of the Holidays. The 40-minute show tells the story of Christmas with a massed choir, an orchestra, and a celebrity narrator.

Vocalists are drawn from youth choirs and Cast Members, and the Voices of Liberty are also featured. The music, which includes some audience-participation Christmas standards, is interwoven with the narrator’s retelling and trumpet fanfares. New celebrity narrators in 2024 are Nico Santo, Tituss Burgess, and Ralph Macchio.

The Candlelight Processional is held in the America Gardens Theater, with three shows daily at 5:00 pm, 6:45 pm, and 8:15 pm. It’s free and there is standby seating for every performance. But it’s also popular, so standby lines are long and form early. By far the easiest way to get a seat is to book a dining package. You’ll get a meal and a ticket; the extra cost for a Candlelight Processional Dining Package is about $20 per adult and $10 per child compared to a regular meal in the same restaurant. In 2024, 15 different restaurants at EPCOT are offering Candlelight Processional Dining Packages.

View the full lineup and dates for each narrator, along with the restaurant list and prices for dining packages: 2024 Candlelight Processional Schedule and Dining Packages.

JOYFUL!

Joyful! A Celebration of the Season is an ensemble performance with Gospel, R&B, and holiday songs celebrating Christmas and Kwanzaa. Live instruments and powerful voices create a truly joyful sound. You’ll find four shows a day, and this year they’ll be at the brand-new CommuniCore Plaza Stage.

Holiday Storytellers

As you stroll the World Showcase, many Pavilions are hosting Storytellers. These shows give you a taste of the holiday traditions of a specific region or culture. Some are a quick tour of regional customs; others recount a country’s seasonal tales.

Shows are typically 15-25 minutes and start times are staggered. If you want to catch them all, you may find that you need to do a lot of zig-zagging – and you still might need more than one day. But even if there’s no performance when you’re there, you’ll find most areas have a narrative plaque.

Look for Storytellers in these locations:

• Las Posadas Celebration – Mexico Pavilion
• A Mischievous Magical Barn Santa – Norway Pavilion
• La Befana – Italy Pavilion
• Chinese Lion Dancer – China Pavilion
• Daruma Storyteller – Japan Pavilion
• Hanukkah Storyteller – Between Morocco and France Pavilions
• Père Noël – France Pavilion.
• Father Christmas – United Kingdom Pavilion
• Canadian Holiday Voyageurs – Canada Pavilion

Voices of Liberty

Throughout the year, the a cappella group Voices of Liberty performs patriotic standards in the rotunda of the American Adventure. During the Festival of the Holidays, they turn their voices to a seasonal repertoire. Dressed in their Victorian finest, you’ll find them singing out a lineup that ranges from classic carols to non-denominational holiday tunes. It will definitely put you in the holiday spirit.

Festival of the Holidays Family Fun

What about park activities that can be enjoyed at any time during your visit? Well, let’s start with the fact that the park is dressed up for the holidays. Throughout the parks, you’ll find Christmas trees, bunting, and festive lights.

At EPCOT, some of our favorite elements are the holiday-themed topiaries. And as you go around the World Showcase, you’ll find decorations that coordinate with countries. In the American Adventure Pavilion, look for a collection of patriotic gingerbread houses.

As you pass from the World Showcase to the Imagination Pavilion, seasonal scents will tickle your nose. It’s the Festive Fragrances presented by Scentsy Snow Globe Garden, brand new for 2024.

Activities at CommuniCore Hall

New this year, there will also be a giant Spaceship Earth made out of gingerbread in Communicore Hall. Made of handcrafted gingerbread triangles, Disney has promised that it will light up and dance throughout the day just as Spaceship Earth does at night. When you’re there, look for 11 hidden Mickeys in the display, one for each country in the World Showcase.

Even when the ball isn’t sparkling, you’ll have plenty of twinkling lights to look at. The Glittering Grove forest decorates the inside, presented by Balsam Hill. Just outside at CommuniCore Plaza, decorate a snowflake or two with your group.

Olaf’s Holiday Tradition Expedition

Do you love a scavenger hunt? Buy an Olaf’s Holiday Tradition Expedition map for $9.99. Then keep your eyes peeled for Olaf to find regional traditions in each World Showcase Pavilion.

Sticker the map as you find the traditions, and turn in your completed map for a prize. No need to complete the activity in one day. In fact, no need to complete it at all! It turns out that the fee you pay for the map is mostly for the prize; you can collect it even if your group doesn’t have time to finish the hunt.

Meet Santa! (and other family photo opportunities)

If you’re not making your regular visit to the mall Santa because you’re on vacation, never fear. You can meet Santa at the Odyssey through December 24. Look for times in the My Disney Experience app. But if Santa’s not your thing, there are plenty of other holiday photo opportunities.

Regular Meet & Greet characters will mostly wear their regular costumes. But many of them will celebrate the season with an accessory or two. Also look for PhotoPass photographers stationed near photogenic backdrops throughout the parks. Many of them will offer Magic Shots that add a bit of Disney fun to your pictures.

After Sunset

For Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, Spaceship Earth became a “Beacon of Magic” with special lighting effects at night. During the holidays these light shows turn the golf ball into a giant ornament once the sun goes down.

Over in the Land Pavilion, the Living With the Land attraction gets a holiday overlay. The greenhouses are strung with lights, turning the ride into Living With the Land – Glimmering Greenhouses. Although the decorations are there during the day, they’re best enjoyed at night.

The Behind the Seeds tour through the greenhouses also gets a holiday overlay! For the 6 and 7 pm tours only, it becomes Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses.

Holiday Kitchens

Throughout the World Showcase, festive Holiday Kitchens will be serving a variety of savory and sweet dishes. New kitchens this year include the Experimental Prototype Cookies of Tomorrow and Favorites of Festivals Past, both at CommuniCore Hall. And two kitchens that were absent last year have returned: Mele Kalikimaka and Chestnuts & Good Cheer. Menus are out, and some of our favorites from last year (all returning!) are highlighted in the gallery below. Tap here to see the full menu lineup.

As the Festival rolls along, we’ll have blog articles with our recommendation for a budget sampler, a review of the Cookie Stroll (see below), the best drinks, and more. Tap here to see all our Holiday Kitchen coverage on the blog. If you prefer, you can follow along on our Instagram feed.

Approaches to Festival snacking vary. Some go intending to hit up a booth or two for lunch or dinner. Two to three savory dishes and a dessert are about the same amount of food as a Quick Service meal. Others spend an afternoon eating (and drinking) their way around the kitchens.

As a rule, budget about $6-7 per dish or about $20 per booth. For drinks, beer runs about $6 and spirited cocktails between $12-15. If you’re on the Disney Dining Plan, most Festival dishes qualify as a Snack Credit; they’re often a great bang-for-the-credit way to spend them.

Lines tend to move quickly even if they seem long, and will usually be shorter at lunch than dinner. If you’re looking for an app to help manage your plan of attack, this is my favorite: Track Your Eats! An EPCOT Festival App for Your Phone.

Cookie Stroll

A fun foodie activity during the Festival is the Holiday Cookie Stroll. Purchase any five of the Cookie Stroll cookies and get a stamp for each in your Festival Passport. (Passports can be found at the park entrances.) When you have 5 stamps, bring your stamped Passport to the Holiday Sweets & Treats booth for a prize.

Merchandise

Are you that person who feels like you didn’t go if you didn’t come back with a memento? Even if you’re not, we find that Disney World is a great place to check off everyone on your gift list. No Festival is complete without its branded merchandise.

Festival of the Holidays has a relatively minimal selection of Festival exclusives, probably because the parks and resorts will be overflowing with holiday merchandise. If Christmas is not your holiday, you’ll also find some items for Hanukkah and other cultures.

Festival of the Holidays Tips