In this post, we discuss visiting Disney World in December. We cover weather, crowds, holidays, events, refurbishments, and anything else you’d like to know if you were planning a visit to Walt Disney World Resort now that we’re in the heart of the holiday season! Read on to learn all about visiting Walt Disney World in December!
Related Posts
If you’re considering a visit in the next two years, our Disney World Two-Year Outlook focuses on when to time your visit in light of major changes around the resort. It’s less focused on details like prices, crowds, and weather and more about the can’t-miss things like new attractions. Our Disney World Planning Guide and 80+ Tips for Planning Your Walt Disney World vacation discuss all aspects of planning your Disney World vacation.
If you’re primarily interested in starting your analysis with price, you’ll want read our post on the cheapest times to visit Disney World, though that topic gets a lot of discussion here, too.
Here are the other month-by-month posts:
Disney World In December (you are here)
If you’ve read our other month-by-month posts, you might notice similarities between this post and some of those. For example, the weather in July and August is basically the same, so our weather sections in those posts are basically the same.
Quick Thoughts on December 2024
Our favorite week of the year. The first full week of December—beginning around December 1 in 2024—is our favorite week of the year. You’re post-Thanksgiving crowds and pre-Christmas crowds, with perfect weather, crowds, and prices and the holidays in full swing.
The busiest times of the year. The end of the month—Christmas week through New Year’s—is the busiest time of the year. While you can expect “Magic” and holiday fun, you should not expect to have perfect days at the parks during these dates.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure should be open. The Splash Mountain replacement is currently slated for a “summer 2024” debut.
2024 December NOTABLE DATES IN DISNEY WORLD
We’ll talk more specifically about crowds and events below, but we like to start with some dates to flag. If you’re thinking about these dates for your visit, keep in mind that normal rules might not apply.
December 21 - January 5. This is the busiest part of “Christmas season”. While Walt Disney World starts the holiday celebrations in November and most are in full gear by the start of December, this two-week period is when Christmas crowds descend on the resort.
Disney World Crowds In December
Our position on Walt Disney World crowd calendars is that people often put too much weight into them, but that’s it’s still good to know general trends as well as specific events that impact crowds.
Whereas the prior month of November was really tricky to predict, December is straightforward. Crowds will start low (once Thanksgiving weekend has passed) and increase steadily through the month, peaking between Christmas and New Year’s.
While that last week is peak week, you’ll need to be concerned about crowds as early as mid-month. Winter vacations will start once the first week of December has passed, and by the end of the second week you should expect high crowds.
The peak period is an entirely different beast. While March as a month is overall worse, Christmas week is as crowded as the resort ever gets. You can still have a great time, but Genie+ will not work as well, rope drop won’t get you as far, and you won’t find many waits under 30 minutes. You might even see waits of four, five, or even six hours for the most popular rides.
If you must see a crowd calendar, the one we trust most is over at WDW Prep School.
Disney World Events In December
We’ll break December events into three categories—“not Christmas,” “Christmas Season”, and “Christmas Week.” (Note: Walt Disney World does recognize winter holidays other than Christmas, but most of the focus is on Christmas.)
Non-Christmas Events In December
ESPN Wide World of Sports used to host the Pop Warner football and cheer championships in December, but those moved to Universal Orlando beginning in 2021. The Disney Boys Soccer Showcase was held December 27-30, 2023. Since holiday crowds are already peak crowds, this might not be noticeable. Generally, these events bring increased crowds to the value resorts, particularly All Star Sports.
Christmas Season at Walt Disney World
First, we have a post specifically about Christmas at Walt Disney World that will answer more of your questions. Second—yes, it really is that magical a time of year. Whatever the drawbacks of visiting during the holiday season, Disney makes the experience worth the trouble.
By December, Christmas celebrations are in full swing. Hotel decorations are all up. Magic Kingdom’s ticketed Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party has dates throughout the month, and all four parks are transformed for the holiday season.
While the Christmas party is the flagship event of the season, the other parks have noteworthy ongoing events as well:
And 2023 saw the debut of a new ticketed event, Jollywood Nights at Hollywood Studios.
Christmas Week at Walt Disney World
Christmas week at Walt Disney World is mostly like the rest of the month, but with higher crowds. Magic Kingdom is the only park with significant changes, as Christmas week often includes some of the entertainment that is otherwise exclusive to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, including the parade, fireworks, and stage show.
The exact timing of this change will vary, but typically it will last for about a week from around Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve. In 2023, some elements of the Christmas party were seen at Magic Kingdom during regular park hours from December 23-31. We expect similar in 2024.
New Year’s Eve at Walt Disney World
At the end of Christmas Week is New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Eve is one of the busiest days of the year at Walt Disney World. There are a variety of dinners / countdown events to consider, but we’re going to focus on the parks. For much more detail, visit Disney Tourist Blog.
Magic Kingdom and Epcot are usually the most popular parks for New Year’s Eve. Disney World as a whole remains a family destination, but Epcot definitely sees a bigger adult crowd due to its drinking culture and variety of specialty entertainment.
Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom also usually stay open until midnight, but their celebrations are more low-key than the other two parks.
In any case, don’t plan on getting much done in the parks on these days. Same-day Lightning Lane space is largely impossible to come by, crowds will fill the park by about 10AM, and we’ve even seen five and six-hour waits.
Disney World Prices In December
Disney World’s hotel and ticket prices vary throughout the year. For a more comprehensive look for pricing throughout the year, check out our post on the cheapest time of the calendar year to visit Walt Disney World. You can also visit the 2024 hotel rate table at MouseSavers. Here’s a table showing how hotel prices at All Star Movies, Port Orleans Riverside, Wilderness Lodge, and Yacht Club fluctuate throughout the year:
December pricing is straightforward. Prices start around average for the year before going up, up, up to the peak of the year. Here’s a graph of pricing within the month at All Star Movies, Port Orleans Riverside, Wilderness Lodge, and Yacht Club:
Disney World December Deals and Discounts
Early- to mid-December will sometimes see some small discounts, but it’s rare the that the high prices in the tail end of the month ever see discounts.
Discounts will vary by hotel, room type, and availability. You can see current Disney World offers here. If nothing is available yet, you might also want to check out historical Disney World discount information here.
Refurbishments & New Constructions
Refurbishments in December are rare due to the high crowds, but you will want to check our Walt Disney World construction / refurbishment calendar for the latest.
Test Track (Epcot) will close for a large refurbishment / reimagining beginning June 17. A reopening date has not yet been yet. The last major reimagining of Test Track took 8 months.
Water Park Operations
Disney World has two water parks, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, neither of which is open the entire year. After some years of uncertainty, the schedule has seemingly settled down so that each year we have:
Typhoon Lagoon opens / Blizzard Beach closes mid-March
Blizzard Beach opens / Typhoon Lagoon closes early November
This schedule is subject to change (and Disney only announces specific dates about a month in advance, in any case). Most recently, Disney confirmed that Typhoon Lagoon will reopen on March 17, 2024. Blizzard Beach will begin its annual refurbishment closure on that same day. This means we expect Blizzard Beach will be the only water park open for the entirety of December.
We also expect Blizzard Beach to get some holiday touches beginning mid-November. Here’s a look at the 2022 holiday theming, which returned in 2023.
Disney World Weather In December
December through February is the colder season at Walt Disney World. The average December high is 73F (23C) and the average low is 53F (12C).
Rain is relatively rare in this season, with only around six days of rain in the month (comparable to the rest of the year, outside summer). Hurricane season has ended. We have a post that talks more broadly about weather at Walt Disney World.
Cold, Heat, and Rain
December is one of the few months you’ll encounter actual cold in Florida. And we think (and we’ve heard agreement from others) that Florida cold is a different type of cold.
We’re from Chicago and routinely (and happily) spend bulks of our winters in sub-zero temperatures. But something about the cold in Florida just bites a different way. Maybe it’s because we’re used to warmer temps during the day, so night feels colder. Maybe it’s the humidity. Maybe it’s just that you’ll be standing around so much (in lines, watching shows, waiting for fireworks).
In any case, if the forecast looks “cool” for your trip, pack an extra layer or two in case it gets “cold.” I can’t tell you how often I’ve been in Walt Disney World in November through February and been so glad I flew from Chicago and had some hardcore warming layers available.
Heat isn’t much of a risk in December, but if you’d like to prepare for it just in case you can hop back a month to October and read about our heat tips.
We don’t let rain forecasts bother us at Disney World anymore. We prepare for rain—bringing the right shoes and maybe a poncho—but we don’t plan trips around it. Even in months with less rain, you’ll see short spurts of it, and the occasional downpour.
We were at Fort Wilderness during a severe thunderstorm that kept us inside all day (though people who braved the parks got tremendously short waits). This was the relatively dry month of February.
And in November 2019, we also were on hand for the first Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, which had almost every show rained out.
November / December / January
As a closing note, let’s compare December to its neighboring months.
Should I Visit Disney World in November or December?
Assuming we’re talking about planning around the holidays, December has a small window to find average-to-low crowds (the first two weeks of the month), but if you can visit during that time, we’d pick December over November.
December is more predictable than November—crowds will start average-to-low (“start” depends on exactly how late Thanksgiving is) and increase steadily until New Year’s Day. If you can visit the first half of the month, you’ll have some crowds but nothing troubling.
You also don’t have to play the “when will holidays start” game in December. Hotels are fully decorated by December. The parks have been in holiday swing for weeks..with one exception.
The Epcot International Festival of the Holidays typically starts after Thanksgiving. If you want to visit Food or Wine Festival, you’ll need to visit in November. If you want the holiday festival, December is the pick.
Should I visit Walt Disney World in December or January?
Except for weather, which is mostly the same, these two months are very different experiences. Holiday celebrations are done with the start of January, and while you might find some decorations still up and merchandise still for sale, it’s not something to plan around.
Historically, January has seen a bit of a drop in crowds from December, but that’s changing. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the Walt Disney World Marathon have kept January crowds above average the last few years, though the middle of the month (between those two peaks) still remains a viable option.
Early December crowds are slightly more appealing than mid-January crowds, in our opinion, so if you’re able to visit those first few weeks of December, we recommend experiencing the holiday season.
Should I visit Walt Disney World In December?
The first two weeks of December are a fantastic time to visit Walt Disney World. You’ll have moderate crowds are the holiday season in full swing.
The rest of the month…well you get what you expect—holiday magic, crowds, and high prices. It’s a unique time of year and if you’re bound by a school schedule you probably don’t have any alternatives to get the holiday experience.
Have you visiting Walt Disney World in December? What did you think?
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Genie+ and Lightning Lane strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Animal Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.
Learn More About The Holidays at Walt Disney World
Want to learn more about Christmastime at Walt Disney World? For starters, we've got a Guide to Christmas at Walt Disney World, which introduces you to everything you need to know.
Need more specifics? You'll want to read about the park that gets the most Magical decorations in our post on Christmas at Magic Kingdom. You'll also want to read about Flurry of Fun—the Christmas celebration at Hollywood Studios, the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays, and the Holiday Celebrations at Animal Kingdom.
But the flagship event of the season is Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party—and our guide has you covered with everything you need to know. Or check out the quick version in our 12 Tips for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.
Last but not least, let's not forget that the celebrations don't stop at the parks! You can visit our post on Christmas decorations at the Disney World hotels to see how even the hotels get into the spirit! Even Disney Springs gets in on the action, with bar overlays and an awesome Christmas Tree Trail! It’s a great time of year at Walt Disney World resort!