Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

Tis the season...

When I was seventeen I got the job of my dreams at Disneyland in California. So from that time until I was thirty four, Disneyland was home.

I was there more often then not, I met my husband there, I raised my kids there, I celebrated all of life’s little moments there, it was home in every sense of the word.

...okay, well except for maybe the sleeping part. ;-)

Since I moved to Virginia though, I haven’t been back. Which means I haven’t stepped foot inside those gates in over seven years and I miss it beyond words. Especially on Sundays, which used to be my quiet day, and on Holidays.

I can’t tell you the excitement I felt every year as Thanksgiving approached. The decorations slowly went up all over the park. The ambient music changed to carols, candy canes and tree ornaments went for sale in every shop and the weather slowly chilled.

Though it was southern California, I stilled loved the first day I got to pull out my coat and every time I arrived at the main gate I’d nearly hold my breath, waiting to see if the tree had arrived yet.

It was the biggest natural tree I’ve ever seen. It sat at the end of main street decorated to the nines and it was beautiful. The first time every year when I saw that tree, I’d cry, overwhelmed like an old friend had returned.

Silly? Yeah, but I found comfort in that tree. In all the decorations actually. In the Dickens carolers, the parades, the day the poinsettias would arrive, it was all so wonderful and festive. Two more enormous trees flanked the bridge to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, their white twinkle lights reflected in the moat below. I loved to sit in the horseshoe seats on that drawbridge, listening to the faint stream of carols as people wandered by me in all directions.

I loved Thanksgiving especially because, though the park was slowly decorated over the entire month of November and they had small versions of the parade to break everyone in, it wasn’t until Thanksgiving day that everything was in place, the lights were on, and the show became alive.

That first night, I’d be giddy with excitement. Lit up from within with a happiness I rarely felt at any other time of year.

We’d hit every touristy thing that we’d turn out noses up at the rest of the year.
Waited in the crowd for the parade, drinking cocoa and eating churros. We lined up to see the tree lighting ceremony, as well as to get our pictures taken with Santa Goofy, and we went on every ride that was made over with a holiday theme.

I loved the country bear’s Christmas and the haunted mansion in it’s Nightmare before Christmas garb, but the best to me is still It’s a Small World. You have to see that one to believe it, but think Chevy Chase’s house in Christmas Vacation. ;)

It’s Magical.

Thanksgiving dinner was always prime rib on the patio at the Plaza. Sorry not a huge fan of turkey. We would sit on the patio where we could watch the crowds, delight in the faces of the kids and the overall crush of people. It felt festive to me, special, exciting.

It felt like home.

I will always miss Disneyland I think, it is a place for me that means so much more then $5 sodas and $50 admission prices. A piece of my heart lives there and it always will. Especially on holidays.

So those were some of my traditions, what are some of yours?