The SATURDAY SIX Looks at Our Favorite CHRISTMAS Details at WDW and Universal Orlando

This week the SATURDAY SIX heads to Walt Disney World and the Universal Orlando Resort during our favorite time of the year, the Christmas season..

That’s right, we here at the SATURDAY SIX love Christmas more than anything. We love Christmas movies. We love that station on the radio that plays Christmas music. We love Christmas decorations. There’s just something special about this season that gives us joy, and thankfully the theme parks that we love go above and beyond during this time as well. We’re going to look at some of our favorite details at the parks this year, starting with…

# 6 – EPCOT

I think the new lighting package for Spaceship Earth may just be the best thing to happen to EPCOT in a decade or more. It’s that good.

The lighting effects across the park really add to the atmosphere, with CommuniCore Hall even getting in on the action.

In a great surprise, we got a fantastic gingerbread Spaceship Earth inside Communicore Hall!

The Gingerbread SSE also has a lighting package!

We mentioned in this year’s Theme Park Turkey of the Year Awards how little it would take to actually “flex” CommuniCore Hall into something worthy of such a prime space inside of a theme park, and the Christmas season is getting us there.

The little “plusses” during the season are fantastic, such as the red and green under carriage lighting on the monorail.

The Christmas details for the miniature train display in World Showcase are above and beyond.

I personally love the various World Showcase Pavilions represented on the giant EPCOT Christmas tree.

The Christmas tree itself ain’t too shabby either…

# 5 – Animal Kingdom

The Merry Menagerie of animal puppets made their Animal Kingdom debut back in 2019, and each year I look forward to their return to the parks as much as anything.

How can they not bring a smile to your face?!

Earlier this year we did an Artist Spotlight feature on Stephen Christ, a creator who always amazes us with his recreations of things we love at the parks (including his amazing series of Merry Menagerie inspired Luminaries!)

What separates Disney and Universal from their competition is all the little details they put in, many of which probably go unnoticed by the masses walking to and from each attraction. However, for those of us that notice the details, it can make our day.

While Dinoland USA is about to go the way of, well, the dinosaurs, there are a ton of great things to see in the land during its last Christmas season at the parks. Including this next level displays featuring toy dinos…

I’ve always loved the creative DIY-like decorating of Restaurantosaurus, but the work done for the Christmas overlay is just fantastic, including this Christmas Tree made out of pieces of tape measures.

These decorations, and many more, were put in place to celebrate the Santa Claus meet-and-greet.

# 4 – Green and Red Coconut Club

Over at Universal Orlando, they have once again rethemed the Red Coconut dance club to a fully themed Christmas venue. This year’s overarching theme is the Mistletoe Pines ski lodge experience (Mistletoe Pines is the home of Earl the Squirrel.)

There are plenty of photo-ops available.

The inside of the club is loaded with fun details.

# 3 – Tree Graveyard and Boutique

Right outside the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade Village in IOA is the All Hallows Eve boutique. This is a year round store dedicated to spookiness, but also has its own seasonal overlays.

Big fan of the Santa and reindeer flamingo ornaments.

Lots of great references in much of the signage in this area.

Certainly wasn’t expecting to get any Halloween Horror Nights references, but I like that this particular venue allows Universal two of their best seasons into one overlay.

# 2 – Holiday Tribute Store

After making their debut at HHN 25, we are approaching the ten year anniversary of Tribute Stores at Universal. I can not express how truly blessed we are to have these in our lives and their existence is probably why I get so frustrated when Disney puts such little thought into places like the Creations Shop and CommuniCore Hall. Each of the Tribute Stores is a retail environment that is LOADED with great details and fan service.

Much like the wonderful Haunted Comic Book Store experience at HHN 32, this Tribute Store has guests walking through various rooms filled with larger than life pages from books.

New for this year is the level of interaction throughout the experience.

One of the books that guests will see is the iconic How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss.

While another book is about Earl the Squirrel himself.

For the Wizarding World, there are various faux advertisements that – I think – look great.

Many of the recent Tribute Stores have references to Earl the Squirrel and Gerg the Llama.

One display of note inside the Tribute Store was one for a book signing.

However, before we get to the actual signing, let’s take a quick detour to show exactly why We Can’t Have Nice Things. When the signing table was originally put out in the Tribute Store, it was decorated with items to look at. These items included Earl the Squirrel business cards.

Unfortunately, this being the world we live in, some guests decided to take these cards by any means necessary. However, to turn a negative into a positive, the Tribute Store put this fun signage where the business cards used to be, hilariously using screws and duct tape.

# 1 – The Tale of Earl the Squirrel

The larger than life book pages featuring Earl the Squirrel in this year’s Tribute Store came from his brand new book!

Earl’s book begins very similar to how my favorite Disney Little Golden Books do, with an area for the book holder to mark it as their own.

Let’s check out part of the story, which begins with us at Earl’s home, Mistletoe Pines.

Earl snuck onboard a truck that was transporting his favorite tree.

Earl woke up to find himself at the gates of Universal Studios Florida!

Not long after, Earl finds himself doing something no squirrel should actually do…

…but our story goes into a different direction than some Rumors and Innuendo suggest the real story ended.

Overall a big thumbs up and here’s hoping we get more stories featuring Earl in the years to come.

Now, the book signing actually featured Universal Team Members behind the project including illustrators Greg Duffy and Kevin Kophamer…

…along with editor Blaine Edwards and writer Rob Cametii.

Universal Orlando has done in-park signings for a variety of merchandise pieces over the years and it is something I would love to see even more of. It’s like a small taste of something that’s so special about Disney’s annual Festival of the Arts, an opportunity for guests to interact with the actual artistic creators.

Even better news? The first printing of Earl’s new book sold out!

New printings of The Tale of Earl the Squirrel are back in stock, and this was definitely a gift under the Christmas tree we didn’t know Santa was bringing this year!

Honorable Mention – Gingy Snack

How could it possibly take this long for Universal to release the most “Yeah, duh!” Christmas snack of all time?! Well, thanks to the debut of this year’s DreamWorks Land, our long national nightmare came to an end as we finally got the gingerbread cookie we’ve always wanted.

So there you have it: The SATURDAY SIX’s favorite Christmas Details at Disney and Universal! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on Twitter (@derekburgan).

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Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHyde and you Potterheads will  enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.

“God bless us, everyone! Except maybe Bob Chapek.” – Tiny Tim, probably