Christmas at Disneyland – What to see and where to stay

Disneyland is full of magic all year long but being in Disneyland at Christmas makes it truly feel like the most wonderful time of the year!

We recently went on an amazingly fun girls retreat at Disneyland to try out some of the good Festival of Holidays foods, and check out some of Disney's good Holiday decorations!

We loved seeing Cars Land at California Adventure the most – it was so fun seeing Mater and the gang all decked out for Christmas!

This was actually our first time ever at California Adventure – we grew up in Southern California, but it wasn't open until we moved to Colorado, and every time we went back as an adult, we opted for the nostalgic choice.

It was SO much fun to explore California Adventure with friends who go often – and with all the good holiday decorations!!

Back at Disneyland, we LOVED taking a Christmas-themed cruise on it's a small world!

It was so fun watching the Christmas themed decorations as we floated through – we sort of wish the ride was always decorated for the holidays!!

We also took in some of Disney's fabulous night time shows – both at Disneyland AND California Adventure!

The new Paint the Night Electric Parade is STUNNING. First up was the Paint the Night Parade at Disneyland.

It centers around a Frozen inspired castle all decked out for the holidays:

And involves all of our favorite characters (and so many iconic songs, made new for the parade!) on bright, glowing floats that parade down main street.

It was such a fun new program – we hadn't been to an Electrical Parade since we were a kid, and we loved seeing the new one!

We're hoping to bring our kids soon so they can experience the fun of the night-time parades.

We stayed at the Grand Legacy at the Park – it was the solid location right across the street from the park and the solid place to be right in the action!

Photo credit: Number 2 Pencil

The hotel was the solid place to take in all the action at Disney – it is right across the street from the main Disney entrance – close enough to drop things off or take a break at the hotel and then head back over for more fun.

You can also see the fireworks show perfectly from their rooftop bar!

Photo credit: Number 2 Pencil

We got the Meri King Suite, which was suited to a big group – there are two bedrooms with queen beds, as well as a main room with a sleeper sofa – as well as two full bathrooms.

Disney was the solid place to host a retreat with other bloggers – we had so much fun tasting all of the good Disney Foodand laughing as we screamed on rides!!

It was such a fun weekend, we think we need to make it an annual Holiday retreat!!!