Wintertime Enchantment


Club 33

Playlist Author
In 2007 Disneyland decided to expand its annual holiday decorations extravaganza to completely take over the castle. Take tops were added to the towers that included snow decorations and thousands of embedded LED lights. Yet more lights were added in plastic icicles and additional decorations around the castle.

Instead of keeping the lights on all the time, 2 castle lighting ceremonies were developed, which would serve both to show off the spiffy new lights and also to act as a build-up throughout the evening to the nightly "Believe... in Holiday Magic" fireworks show, which was revamped and returned for the season in 2006 after an absence of any special holiday fireworks during Disneyland's 50th Anniversary Celebration. For the 2007 season the dialog at the beginning and end of the show was rerecorded by the same actress who plays the "Mother" character in the ceremonies.

In addition to the lighting effects, each act was originally supposed to be accompanied by snow on Main Street, an event usually saved only for the conclusion of the holiday fireworks. For whatever reason this was scrapped and the snow only falls during the usual "White Christmas" finale to the fireworks show (which, incidentally, still played during the 50th celebration even though the regular Remember, Dreams Come True fireworks were shown).

In 2008, the lighting effects were updated to include swirling white LED lighting throughout the Main Street decorations and including the Christmas Tree.

The ceremonies feature a brief interaction between a child, who wishes for it to snow, and a mother figure, who reassures him of the power of magic. The music then turns to a new version of "Shine," the song from the short lived Disney's California Adventure holiday lagoon show "Luminaria," performed by Kelly Coffey.

Officially the acts together are known as "Wintertime Enchantment," though this title has never been used in the parks, and in fact the ceremonies are not even listed in park guides and time schedules even though they occur daily during the season.

A couple of induction recordings have circulated. Higher quality stereo recordings (though not source) are in very limited circulation. Small clips of source from the shows (in mono) have been played on the Disneyland Official Podcast and Videocast, as has the ending of the Believe... in Holiday Magic fireworks with the new narration.

Act One - "Wish"

Act I runs 3:42, and plays at 5:30pm.


Act Two - "Dream"

Act II runs 3:44, and plays at 7:30pm.


Act III is called "Believe," and is -usually- the regular White Christmas Finale to the Believe... in Holiday Magic fireworks. There is supposedly, however, a true third act, with similar content to the first two, that is designed to play when the fireworks are canceled due to weather reasons. Presumably this is then followed by the White Christmas song with snow. I have never seen this happen, however, and I have not been able to find any recordings of this third act.
 

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