Everyone knows that Disney World and Disneyland go all out for the holidays. Overlays on It’s A Small World and Haunted Mansion, the Spectacle of Dancing Lights, the Candlelight Processional, etc…they shove Christmas down your throat, but in a good way. We also receive the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade every year on ABC showing off the beautiful floats from their respective X-Mas parades. That is great and all…but do you remember the Easter Day Parade?
Well, it happened alright! In the late eighties and early nineties, Disney broadcast the Happy Easter Parade. In the same vein as the Christmas day parade, the park was decorated in its “Sunday Best” and the telecast showcased floats celebrating the holiday and performances from singers and bands…and some synergy-tastic looks into whats ahead for Walt Disney World.
Why did it leave? I am not really sure. You could say bad ratings, or budget cuts, I am not entirely sure…but I do know I would love to see it return. Personally, I believe the parks shine during holiday celebrations, so why not add in a spring one too?
You would think they would jump on board with this…can you imagine the possibilities? The Magic Kingdom would be covered in pastel blues, pinks and greens all while the lamp posts on Main Street would be decorated to look like Easter baskets filled with eggs. A hard-ticket event (Oswald’s Easter Egg-stravaganza!) would be held nightly with a park-wide Easter egg hunt (The trick-or-treating/cocoa and cookies equivalent), with some of them holding candy and some with Fastpasses. If they tried really hard, they could do a Candlelight Processional of sorts but singing Christian Easter-related songs, and make it in the daytime.
I would LOVE to see Easter represented more at the parks. For me, it is a much under-appreciated holiday and I would love for the parks to give it more credit. In the past years they have done a nice pre-parade on the day of Easter, but I would love to see a WHOLE parade. Tokyo does an Easter celebration and they put on an amazing Festival…so why can’t the states?
Would you like to see Easter at WDW? Would you pay money to go to an Easter hard-ticket event? Who doesn’t want to see Kelly Ripa and Micheal Strahan host the Disney Parks Easter Parade?! Let me know in the comments below! I will leave below the awesomely addictive opening the parade telecast from 1989. Until next time…Have a Magical Day!
While Easter is not one of my favorites, and I can’t comment on the TRUE reasons why Disney would ditch this parade, I can only guess.
For one, Budget, like you mentioned. There’s a lot that goes into these parades.
Commercial success of the holiday. Easter is a minor holiday in my eyes, like St. Patrick’s Day or Labor Day.
Christmas is universal, it’s been celebrated long before the Christians adopted it for the Winter Solstice, and even the god mithra was born on the 25 of December in a manger, with the three wisemen present long before JC was. It seems multi faiths have a major holiday to celebrate during this season. Christmas has also been commercialized so it’s far removed from it’s religious roots, making it a very safe holiday to celebrate without polarizing itself to a religious brand.
Although Easter has strict Pagan origins, it’s been highly adopted by Christianity and could be too polarizing to the parks.
Personally, I would not care for a Easter parade. But I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to visit the Magic Kingdom during the holidays as I like my Magic Kingdom the way it is, without decorations.
Easter is much more religious than Christmas. Plenty of people celebrate Christmas, not just Christians. Easter… not so much. It’s harder to get away from the religious aspect. Eggs and bunnies are about as much as you can do. I wouldn’t want to see WDW embracing Easter as much, since it’s far too religious.
I’d have to agree with the above post, it’s a bit too religious.
Though I’d love to see a “Springtime Celebration” type of event instead =] It’s a bit more general ahaha, and you can have the Fairies of Pixie Hollow be a big part of it :]
That is what Tokyo does. Not as religious as it is stereotypical Easter, in a good way. Lots of pastels, bunnies, eggs, etc. I want THAT, not necessarily the Easter Candlelight like mentioned, I was just giving ideas on that. Truthfully…I really want Oswald’s Easter Egg-stravaganza
If you want to see Disney do Easter, head to Tokyo. They have a springtime Easter celebration every spring with parades, shows, and special events. Since they aren’t afraid to spend money on things like the US parks it really is soemthing to see.
I read this post on Monday and it reminded me that the parade was coming on again for x-mas so yesterday my kids and I decided to tune in. Being a huge parks fan and the fact that I worked in WDW CP (HM), I expected to see a similar parade show that I’ve seen growing up. Wow was I disgusted.
Am I the only one that thought that show was a huge injustice?
Not only was the entire show pre-recorded (unlike shows of the 80’s and 90’s) but it was just one big gigantic commercial for all of Disney’s products. I understand the buisiness end of things but even the commercials between the so-called parade were commercials for Disney. I expect them to make a big fuss over New Fantasyland and Cars Land, but to put in such lame plugs for Aulani, Newsies and the Cruiseline was desparate. It was two hours of showing kids in this county where mom and dad should spend their money.
But what got me was not the fact that the parade float were chopped into mere 10 second splits but the fake editing and crowd sound effects that were played throughout the show, especially during the concert performances. Watching the cheerleading squads performances and marching bands get cut into mere seconds on TV. Not Cool. Kids work very hard to get there and I am sure they are not happy watching the tape.
What happen to the good old days or Regis and Kathylee sitting on Mainstreet by the railroad station, looking down and waiting for the parade floats to pass by? I remember being there for one of the Easter parades in ’92 and watching the same parade that millions of viewers across America were watching.
I turned off the TV set feeling very disappointed.
Anybody else feel the same?
I suspect the reason there isn’t an Eater overlay on the U.S. parks now is simply corporate marketing. The Halloween through Christmas promotions have worked spectacularly to boost attendance during what would otherwise have been the lowest grossing season of the year. Disney doesn’t need to spend so much money promoting attendance in the Spring.
I also don’t want to see an Easter overlay on the U.S. parks.
“Easter,” of course. Who knows what an “Eater” overlay would be?
I can just see it now…they could have a Turkey Leg float, Cosmic Ray could roll down the street playing his signature tunes, dancing Mickey ice cream bars…
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