A beloved holiday tradition at the Disneyland Resort is the annual telling of the Christmas story during the Candlelight Processional and Ceremony. Every year during the first weekend of December, a celebrity narrator joins a massive choir, orchestra, handbells, fanfare trumpeters, and soloists during for two beautiful evenings on Town Square. It really is spectacular.
This year is the 60th anniversary of this tradition. The story behind it really is beautiful. It started quite small and then continued to grow. In fact, it has grown beyond the Disneyland Resort. Over at the Walt Disney World Resort, the Candlelight Ceremony is presented nightly throughout the holiday season at Epcot. There are some differences between the two ceremonies on each coast. The story that is being told though, is the same.
For weeks Disney fans have been speculating on who the narrator will be. Sometime on Saturday afternoon, the speculation will end as the narrator will arrive for the soundcheck. Through the years the narrators have included Dick Van Dyke, Cary Grant, Charlton Heston, Jimmy Stewart, James Earl Jones, John Stamos, Gennifer Goodwyn, and Chris Hemsworth to name a few.
DAPS MAGIC has been covering this special ceremony since its early years. While not all of these ceremonies have ended up on YouTube (due to technological limitations), for the last 11 years the ceremony has been posted (in varying lengths as YouTube allowed).
Disneyland’s Candlelight Processional and Ceremony Through the Years
The ceremony has been modified and grown throughout the years. It has had substitutions of songs and the script has changed at times. Some of these have happened in recent years and can be seen in the included videos. The main point of this ceremony has never changed. It tells the story of peace and love that makes the coolest of evenings feel warm. It is a beautiful gift that the Disneyland Resort gives to guests every year. Here is to another 60 years of Christmas magic as more narrators, choirs, and musicians continue to tell the Christmas story!
Merry Christmas!
