Disney gives fans a look inside the parks and what it takes to get Walt Disney World and Disneyland ready for the holidays in the special presentation, “Decorating Disney: Holiday Magic.” Whoopi Goldberg hosts this special along with Jordan Fuller and Sophia Carson. The trio show viewers how classic Disney attractions get holiday overlays, what goes into all of the changes in the parks from decorations to gardening, and we get a closer look at the choreography that goes into the holiday parades at the parks.

This is 100 percent Disney fluff. It’s basically an hour-long advertisement for Disney World and Disneyland that premiered on Freeform in the United States back in 2017. That being said, I’m still here for it. Being a Freeform Original, I wasn’t expecting anything as in-depth as “The Imagineering Story.” It would be nice to see something with more substance, but still I enjoyed seeing how the parks tried to make things more magical before the pandemic.

My favorite parts are the holiday overlays at Cars Land and the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland. I love Cars, and that is one of the easiest to give a holiday theme. On top of that, I love the Haunted Mansion, and I love “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” so it’s a great blend of those two properties. Plus, it was really cool to learn the daughter of the original Madame Leotta provided the voice and face for the updated Madame Leotta in the holiday overlay.

My least favorite part was the extra ad on top of what is already a bigger ad for the parks. It’s great that a family allowed Disney to film them celebrating the holidays at the park, but that’s something to put on the channels in the rooms, not in the middle of this special. It felt odd and out of place. I would watch that on a travel guide, not a special about decorating an amusement park.

This is one of two Decorating Disney specials that premiered on Freeform in the past 5 to 6 years. The other focused on the preparations for Halloween. It’s not currently on Disney+ in the United States, and I really don’t know why. I hope it gets added in the future. This was fun. It was far from great, but it was fun. Yes, it was fluff, but I still want to see more of it.

Rating: 4 stars

What did you think of “Decorating Disney: Holiday Magic?”

Jeremy Brown

Jeremy has been a big Disney fan since he was a kid growing up during the Disney Renaissance. One day he hopes to go to every Disney Park in the world.

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