¡Viva Navidad! Latin Holiday Special Coming to DCA, Nov. 15 – Jan. 6

The winter holidays is a magical time for many reasons and many families have a tradition of spending a few days of holiday magic at the Happiest Place on Earth. Those wish to celebrate the holidays with the warmth and spirit of the Latino cultures and traditions will find plenty to enjoy at Disney ¡Viva Navidad! coming to the Paradise Garden area of Disney California Adventure November 15 – January 6.

Disney ¡Viva Navidad! is a merry celebration filled with Latino holiday traditions. The special activities include crafts and face-painting for children, live Latino music, dance lessons, holiday foods, a “Disney ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party” and, of course, appearances by some popular Disney characters.

There’s quite a line up of entertainment, food and dining:

• Disney characters participating in Disney ¡Viva Navidad! include Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Goofy in their festive costumes along with the Three Caballeros: Donald Duck, Panchito Pistoles from Mexico and Jose Carioca from Brazil.
• Paradise Garden will be decorated with holly, banners and Latino cultural icons, including traditional “papel picado” hand-cut paper art decorations.
• The exciting “Disney ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party” takes over Paradise Garden several times daily, featuring the Three Caballeros on a festive holiday float, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse transported on colorfully decorated street tricycles, flag-bearers carrying papel picado banners, Mexican folklorico dancers, samba dancers and drummers, plus giant “Mojiganga” puppets, including representations of Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus.
• At the Paradise Garden bandstand, guests will enjoy performances by traditional mariachi, Norteño, and other regional music groups. Also at Paradise Garden, community music and folklorico troupes will perform throughout the day.
• “Disney ¡Viva Navidad!” guests will find opportunities to enjoy fun arts and crafts, storytelling and face-painting, and they may also discover a selection of unique merchandise in the area.
• Dining locations in Paradise Garden will add an array of popular Mexican food options for “Disney ¡Viva Navidad!” Menus will feature Mexican dishes that are often served for the holidays, such as pozole (hearty stew), chicken mole drumettes, pescado (fish) Veracruzano, champurrado (Mexican-style hot chocolate), sweet tamales, torta al pastor (pork sandwich), buñuelos (deep-fried sweet treat), choco flan and, for the Three Kings Day celebration, Rosca deReyes bread.

Don’t miss the sweet tamales and champurrado! Of course, you can probably sneak in a churro or two, nobody will mind.

The grand finale of “Disney ¡Viva Navidad!” will be the special celebration of Three Kings Day (Dia de los Reyes) Jan. 3 through 6, 2014 in Paradise Garden. I’ve always enjoyed these mini-festivals out at Disneyland. Glad to see Disney keeping up the tradition.

What is your favorite part of the winter holidays at Disneyland?