Walt Disney Christmas History

Hall of Fame was a radio show that aired on NBC in the early 1930's hosted by John McIntire. For their 1934 Christmas show they brought in Walt Disney and his stable of animated characters. This is one of Walt Disney's earliest radio appearances and you get a glimpse at who the popular Walt Disney characters were in 1934. Over the years several of them vanished from the core group but here they are at the dawn of the Walt Disney Studios and their popularity. Both Walt and his characters would go one to appear on several radio shows at the height of the medium. Original airdate December 23, 1938 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

In the 1950's Walt Disney started an annual Nativity Pageant in Disneyland. The Matterhorn mountain, the highest point in the park, eventually became the home to the Star of Bethlehem so the 3 Wisemen could find the Christ Child. For many years that star rotated. When Walt Disney World opened after Walt passed away, the Nativity pageant was brought there as well. This video is a home movie of the living Nativity Show, performed at Walt Disney World Village, in 1983. The show was called the Glory and Pageantry of Christmas and was performed as a living Tableau, with three performances nightly for about a ten day period during the Christmas season. The incredible background vocals were performed by the amazing A Cappella group known as The Regeneration Carolers, under the direction of Derrick Johnson, who also served as the Innkeeper character and provided the narration. What is not included in this video is the pre-show performance by The Regeneration Carolers, which included a collection of Christmas Carols. The Glory and Pageantry of Christmas was discontinued by the Eisner regime some time in the early 1990's. If a guest had not recorded this home movie there would be no evidence that this event was once a Christmas tradition at Walt Disney's the Magic Kingdom and is part of Walt Disney history. Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Christmas in Disneyland was a 1976 Christmas special that aired on ABC and used the theme park as a backdrop for this variety special format program. Similar TV specials with the variety show performance format were the only kinds of new episodes being filmed in the parks at the time. Christmas at Walt Disney World would appear two years later and some view Christmas at Walt Disney World as a companion piece to Christmas in Disneyland. In this rare 1970's Walt Disney Christmas Special, a Scrooge-like grandfather regains his belief in everything through a magical trip around the most magical place on earth, Disneyland. Along the way we get a trip through Small World, share in a hoedown with the Country Bears Jamboree, make toys with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, experience a Christmas story with the Three Little Pigs, and experience highlights of the Candlelight Processional. Like many of the Walt Disney TV episodes in the 1970's, this special makes several uses of bluescreen and chroma key special effects. This was very unusual for the time. Most of the stars in this TV special star as multiple characters. Art Carney portrays Gramps and Dr Wunderbar; the Head of Disneyland's Dept of Disbelief. Carney is known for being a television pioneer having starred as Ed Norton on the classic 1950's sitcom The Honeymooners. Later in life, he also appeared in many Christmas related films and TV specials. He was in everything from Jim Henson's The Great Santa Claus Switch and Rankin/Bass' The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold to The Night They Saved Christmas and The Star Wars Holiday Special. Brad Savage and Terri Lynn Wood portray the grandchildren. Savage had been a co-star in The Apple Dumpling Gang and would go one to appear in a few more Disney films including Return From Witch Mountain. Wood was a film and sitcom star of the time. Sandy Duncan portrays the Disneyland Tour Guide and Snow White. Duncan already had an affiliation with Walt Disney Productions. She'd already appeared in the comedy The Million Dollar Duck and two years prior appeared in her own TV specials Sandy Duncan in Disneyland. She also later appeared their comedy The Cat From Outer Space and would voice Vixey in The Fox & The Hound. She embodied the wholesome image that was important to the company at the time. Outside of Walt Disney Productions she would guest star on numerous TV shows of the era and eventually have her own sitcom in the late 1980's, The Hogan Family. Glen Campbell is the Disneyland Employee and Grandpa Jones. Campbell was a popular country music star at the time and had his own variety show. He's also appeared in a few Disney TV specials including the Grand Opening of Walt Disney World. A highlight in this special is the segment when Glen performs with the audio animatronics characters of the long gone America Sings attraction. The Christmas songs are dubbed in and many of these animatronics would go on to be used in Splash Mountain. The Disneyland singing group Kids of the Kingdom also appears. Christmas in Disneyland is a snapshot of what the park was like a decade after Walt was gone and enjoyed an afterlife being rerun on the Disney Channel until the late 1990’s. In fact, for the first few years of that network, it was part of its annual Christmas eve broadcast evening. It was never released to VHS or DVD and hasn’t been seen on TV in over two decades. This is an important record of Walt Disney history demonstrating how Walt Disney Productions continued to adhere to Walt and Roy's values after both were gone (their widows were still around.) December 8, 1976 *Historical Note: This is the best we could restore this TV special until better source materials are located. Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Christmas at Walt Disney World was a 1978 Christmas special that aired on NBC and used the still recently opened theme park as a backdrop for this variety special format program. Similar TV specials with the variety show performance format were the only kinds of new episodes being filmed in the parks at the time. A Christmas in Disneyland special had been produced two years prior and some view Christmas at Walt Disney World as a companion piece to that. There is no over all plot to these shows. They just showcase then contemporary talents performing in the parks. In this case, it's made up of different segments with a Christmas theme. Many of these focus on the husband and wife mime team Robert Shields and Lorene Yarnell. They had met on a Sid and Marty Kroft production, married, and quickly became a popular act at the time who appeared on several TV shows in the 1970’s. They divorced in 1986 but still periodically continued to perform together. Shields went on to be Director of Clowning for the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus while Yarnell was the live actress for Dot Matrix in Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs. Pop/Rock band Pablo Cruise performs a song. Popular comedian Phyllis Diller appears in a segment inspired by Cinderella. She was in a lot of variety shows in the 60’s and 70’s often referencing her fictional husband "Fang." She went on to portray the Queen in Disney/Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. Child actress Danielle Spencer appears in this segment. She was a co-star on the ABC sitcom What's Happening!! Sterling Holloway narrates an adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. He had been in several Walt Disney animated productions as a narrator but is perhaps best known as the original voice of Winnie the Pooh. This was one of his final performances for Walt Disney Productions before his retirement. Comedian Avery Schreiber portrays Geppetto. He’d been part of the comedy team Burns and Schreiber with comedian Jack Burns. Burns was Don Knotts' replacement on the Andy Griffith Show and was co-creator of The Muppet Show. Shchreiber was often in Burns' projects and for decades he appeared on a lot of different TV shows for both children and adults. Children of the 1990's may best remember him as the grandfather in the Hanna-Barbera series Wake, Rattle, & Roll (later reran as Jump, Rattle, & Roll.) Broadway actress Andrea McArdle is the showcase in the final sequence of this special and that sequence really makes the whole thing. McArdle originated the role of Annie on Broadway the year before and has enjoyed a robust Broadway career. In this special’s grand finale she joins the Walt Disney characters in singing several Christian hymns referencing Christ which is something we would never seen done today. Christmas at Walt Disney World is a snapshot of what the park was like shortly after opening and enjoyed an afterlife being rerun on the Disney Channel until the late 1990’s. In fact, for the first few years of that network, it was part of its annual Christmas eve broadcast evening. It was never released to VHS or DVD and hasn’t been seen on TV in over two decades. This is an important record of Walt Disney history demonstrating how Walt Disney Productions continued to adhere to Walt and Roy's values after both were gone (their widows were still around.) Original airdate December 10, 1978 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

The Disneyland Candlelight Processional began when Walt Disney looked upon the park from his apartment above the Firehouse on Main Street USA and decided that Disneyland needed to have Christmas Carolers. He asked Dr. Charles Hirt, a local college professor, to lead these carolers as they performed both throughout the park and at the Disneyland Bandstand. That Christmas several neighborhood choirs were invited to perform in the park at an event called the Disneyland Christmas Bowl that was held for many years -- each year bigger than the last. By 1957 the Candlelight Processional had taken shape and while it had been held in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle that year, Walt decreed that it would always be held on Main Street USA from that point forward. After being in charge of the pageantry of the 1960 Winter Olympics with which Walt had collaborated with Dr Hirt, the pair began planning on how to expand the Candlelight Processional event into an even larger affair. A living Christmas tree became part of the show and, in 1961, Disneyland began the tradition of asking celebrities to host the event. The first of these was actor Dennis Morgan who was honored with these duties for many years. Other celebrity hosts included Dick van Dyke, Gale Storm, John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Rock Hudson, and others. Many of these people were Walt’s personal friends and when he or his family informally asked them to perform in this service, they always agreed. John Wayne even did so while battling a bad cold because he felt it was that important to host. It was understood that Christmas was a time to culturally honor the birth of Jesus Christ with holy reverence regardless of personal issues or political position. After Walt Disney World opened in 1971, Dr. Hirt set up the Candlelight Processional there where he led it for many years. Rock Hudson was the first celebrity host for the Walt Disney World version of the ceremony and holds the record of hosting this service more than any other celebrity host. The show became so popular that eventually it was moved to EPCOT Center where it had a much larger venue, and more guests could see it. In this version there has usually been a different host each weekend from Thanksgiving through New Year's. In 1986 the Disneyland Candlelight Processional was filmed and began airing on The Disney Channel in 1987. Actor Howard Keel hosts this event and had been the star of the Biblical film Walt and Roy co-funded and distributed in 1959, The Big Fisherman. In an interview Keel commented, “I’ve never been a very religious person, but when you stand up there for all of those people with that incredible chorus and orchestra beside you, it’s a wonderfully moving experience. In fact, I was so moved I could hardly speak.” This version had already begun to be watered down from the Eisner era PC policies starting to creep in but is still a very powerful statement that this was once the Walt Disney Company. The broadcast also illustrates the Nativity Story with artwork going back centuries in this celebration of what Christmas is really all about. This broadcast aired on the Disney Channel annually from 1987 until 1995 and often aired as their Christmas Eve midnight service and/or as their final Christmas special on Christmas day. After 1995 it never aired again. The poem, One Solitary Life, had always be a part of the Candlelight Processional. It began as a sermon by James Allan Francis that he gave at a Los Angeles Convention to the Baptist’s Young People’s Union on July 11, 1926. The poem proved immensely popular and became a beloved Christmas staple as well-known as any hymn and featured in everything from The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular to Sonny & Cher’s Comedy Hour. President Reagan frequently read the poem to children from the White House as part of the Christmas festivities. This was a VERY well-known piece of American, Christian, and cultural history that’s become obscure in recent years. In 2012 the poem, One Solitary Life, which had always been a part of Walt Disney's Candlelight Processional, was removed along with many of the “more religious” Christian traditional hymns celebrating the birth of Christ. The Walt Disney Company claimed they were removed for “time,” but these had always been at the heart of the presentation, so we know what that really meant. In the years afterward, references to the deity of Jesus Christ were also removed, emphasis placed on Jesus only being a mortal man of peace were substituted, and eventually Woke Disney inserted 1 Corinthians 15 known as the "Love Chapter" twisting it to be about affirming the rainbow jihad. The Candlelight Processional also often became a platform for the celebrity host to push their leftist agenda or rail about social justice and other typical leftwing nonsense instead of honoring the birth of Christ. Every time a change has been made, Woke Disney always claims these changes are only minor and troll those who object for "overreacting." Eventually the center was gutted out from the ceremony. This is clearly not the same service Walt Disney created. Below are some further resources on the history of this event. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- List of Disneyland Hosts Dennis Morgan (1961-1964) Dick Van Dyke(1965) (Walt’s last Candlelight ceremony) Dennis Morgan (1966) Gregory Peck (1967 Saturday) Dean Jones (Sunday) Henry Fonda (1968, Saturday) Rock Hudson (Sunday) Gary Grant (1969) Charlton Heston (1970 Saturday) Dean Jones (Sunday) John Wayne (1971) Rock Hudson (1972) Cary Grant (1973-1974) Jimmy Stewart (1975) Rock Hudson (1976) Buddy Ebsen (1977 Saturday) Ed Asner (Sunday) Cary Grant (1978) Elliot Gould (1979 Saturday) Joseph Cotton (Sunday) Michael Landon (1980) Ed Asner (1981 Saturday) Jason Robards (Sunday) Pat and Shirley Boone (1982) Darren McGavin (1983) Joseph Campanella (1984) Kevin Dobson (1985) Craig T. Nelson (1986 Saturday) Elliot Gould (Sunday) Howard Keel (1986-1987) Joseph Campanella (1988) John Forsythe (1989) James Earl Jones (1990) Robert Urich (1991) George Kennedy (1992) Michael York (1993) Peter Graves (1994) David Ogden Stiers (1995) Mary Hart (1996) Joseph Campanella (1997) Richard Crenna & Edward James Olmos (1998) Olympia Dukakis (1999) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- List of Walt Disney World Hosts Rock Hudson (1971) Carey Grant (1972) Rock Hudson (1973-1974) Dean Jones (1975) Joseph Campanella (1976) Rock Hudson (1977) Ross Martin (1978) Perry Como (1979) Rock Hudson (1980) James Hampton & Darren McGavin (1981) Pat & Shirley Boone (1982) Joseph Campanella (1983) Rock Hudson (1984) Howard Keel (1985-1986) Dean Jones (1987) Walter Cronkite (1988) McLean Stevenson (1989) Joseph Campanella (1990) George Kennedy (1991) Paula Zahn (1992) James Earl Jones (1993) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- List of EPCOT Center Hosts 1994 – Robert Guillaume, Robert Urich, Phylicia Rashad 1995 – Erik Estrada, Louis Gossett Jr., Peter Graves, Phylicia Rashad, Billy Dee Williams 1996 – Buzz Aldrin, Barbara Eden, Edward Asner, Louis Gossett Jr., Sandi Patty, Joseph Marcell, Tara Halland, David Ogden Stiers 1997 – Paula Zahn, George Kennedy, Mary Hart, Angie Dickenson, Louis Gossett Jr., Pat Morita, Robert Urich, Sandi Patty, Dr. Bobby Jones 1998 – Louis Gossett Jr., Art Garfunkel, Phylicia Rashad, Charles Kimbrough, Brian Dennehy, George Hamilton, James McDaniel, Joseph Marcel, Deidre Hall, George Kennedy, Nicole Johnson, David Ogden Stiers 1999 – Alfre Woodard, Charles Kimbrough, Angela Bassett, Brian Dennehy, Maria Conchita Alonso, James Avery, Edward James Olmos, James McDaniel, Andy Garcia, Sandi Patty, David Ogden Stiers, LeVar Burton ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One Solitary Life by James Allan Francis He was born in an obscure village as the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His Divine Manhood. While still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. Another betrayed Him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon the cross between two thieves. While he was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth and that was His coat. When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the center of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon the earth as powerfully as has this One Solitary Life. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original airdate December 20, 1987 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

This Disney Channel Christmas special hosted by Carol Lawrence explores Christmas traditions around the world. Lawrence was a popular singer and had co-hosted the 1983 Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade but this was her first time leading such a broadcast for the Walt Disney Company. This program takes on a music/educational concert format celebrating these traditions with songs and music from the native cultures. This was what "diversity" looked like in 1987. The majority of these songs and stories are Judaeo-Christian or Christ centered. You will not believe this was a Disney production. This special debuted in 1987 and aired on the Disney Channel through 1994. 1993/94 is when PC culture overran the Walt Disney Company and you can see that company wide. Original airdate December 19, 1987 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Mickey's Nutcracker is a 1991 Disneyland stage production that was filmed and aired on the Disney Channel for several years starting in 1992. It features many of the core Walt Disney characters in starring roles as well as Roger Rabbit who was being forced into Mickey's Gang hard at the time. Original airdate December 9, 1992 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

This promotional video documents the Christmas traditions at the Walt Disney World Resorts in the early 1990's. This was just before PC culture swept through the place and forever altered the Magic Kingdom and its policies from what Walt Disney and his brother Roy had created. This VHS was sold in the parks as a souvenir to guests at the time. The premise of the program is a little girl writes Santa Claus worried he won't find her because her family is going to be at Walt Disney World for Christmas. Santa Claus immediately write her a response assuring her that he'll find her as he explores the way Walt Disney World used to observe Christmas each year. The Live Nativity is also featured. This is a wonderful historical document on what the beloved brand was like before the war of Christmas began. The Walt Disney Company and America was like a whole different country back then. Original release date October 1993 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

This promotional video depicts Disneyland at Christmas time in the early 1990's. This was just before PC culture swept through the place and forever altered the Magic Kingdom and its policies from what Walt Disney and his brother Roy had created. This VHS was sold in the parks as a souvenir to guests at the time. The premise of the program is Mickey Mouse and his friends are preparing Disneyland for Christmastime. Most of the content focuses on the Disneyland Christmas parade and the stage show Mickey's Nutcracker. There's a brief segment on the Candlelight Processional as well. In this video we also see how Roger Rabbit had been integrated into Mickey's gang but the shared copyright with Amblin would end this by the time Dreamworks was founded and the character would fade into fad obscurity rather than forced evergreen. Merlin from the Sword in the Stone is also a main figure in this program. He lights the Disneyland Christmas tree. This is am interesting historical document on what Disneyland was like before PC culture took over. The Walt Disney Company and America was like a whole different country back then. Original release date October 1992 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.