Walt Disney World's holiday season runs November 13 to January 6.
Except it doesn't, quite. Two of the biggest things on the calendar start before the season officially does.
Disney Jollywood Nights opens at Hollywood Studios on 7 November. Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party opens at Magic Kingdom on 8 November. The season proper begins five and six days later.
If you have a trip in that first week of November and assumed you were too early for Christmas, you are not.
The two ticketed parties
Both are separately ticketed after-hours events, and both run select nights rather than every night.
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party — Magic Kingdom, select nights from 8 November to 22 December 2026.
Disney Jollywood Nights — Hollywood Studios, select nights from 7 November 2026 to 5 January 2027. Note that end date: Jollywood runs almost a month longer than the Magic Kingdom party and is the only one of the two still going after Christmas.
What's free with regular admission
Most of the season costs nothing extra, and this is the part people underestimate.
Magic Kingdom gets Festive Flair along Main Street, U.S.A., the Frozen Holiday Surprise castle show with Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and the Snowgies, and the Jingle Cruise overlay on Jungle Cruise.
Hollywood Studios gets Sunset Seasons Greetings, the nightly holiday projections on the Hollywood Tower Hotel, plus Holidays at Toy Story Land with festive music on Alien Swirling Saucers. There is also a holiday overlay on Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets — four new tracks from The Electric Mayhem, which Disney says features "a few special guests."
Animal Kingdom gets Merry Menagerie, the artisan-sculpted arctic animal puppets on Discovery Island, and a holiday edition of Tree of Life Awakenings.
EPCOT gets the biggest single block of it, below.
EPCOT, and the one date that is different
EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays runs 27 November to 30 December 2026 and is included with park admission.
That is a noticeably shorter window than everything else, and it starts two weeks after the season does. If the festival is the reason you are going, mid-November will not get you it.
Candlelight Processional runs inside those same dates at America Gardens Theatre — the Christmas story with a celebrity narrator, orchestra and massed choir.
Two smaller EPCOT items worth knowing: Goofy as Santa is meeting guests at The Odyssey with a PhotoPass photographer, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind swaps in three seasonal songs from 25 November 2026 to 6 January 2027 — It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24, and Christmas Wrapping.
The short version for planning
- 7 Nov — Jollywood Nights begins (ticketed, through 5 Jan)
- 8 Nov — Very Merry begins (ticketed, through 22 Dec)
- 13 Nov — the season officially starts, decorations and overlays across the parks
- 25 Nov — Cosmic Rewind's holiday soundtrack
- 27 Nov — EPCOT's festival and Candlelight Processional begin
- 22 Dec — last Very Merry
- 30 Dec — last day of the EPCOT festival
- 5 Jan — last Jollywood Nights
- 6 Jan — season ends
The awkward week is 13–26 November: decorations are up and both parties are running, but EPCOT's festival has not started yet.
Every date and event name above is taken from Disney's own Holidays at Walt Disney World Resort page, read on 31 October 2026. Ticket prices and the number of party nights are not published there, so they are not stated here.