Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade (1998)

This is the sixteenth Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade to be aired on network television since 1984. This parade would become a staple for decades and something important in growing up Disney in the 80's and 90's, although the "Christmas" name would be dropped near the end of the Eisner age. The Christmas parade telecast really became a 2 hour infomercial for what the Walt Disney Company had in the works for the upcoming year. Eventually annual Easter and Independence Day Parade telecasts would join the Christmas Parade and the Christmas Parade itself would expand to a 2 hour Christmas morning broadcast tradition. Regis Philbin became the figure most associated with these parades but this is the first parade where he's nowhere to be found since his involvement began. (The Easter and Independence Day Parade broadcasts were dropped near the end of the Eisner years as well.) The Christmas and Easter parades always aired on the ABC Network.

This is a time capsule of both Walt Disney history and American history. We continue to see the Eisner regime easing out of its peak. This was also the year when several Christian groups continued their boycotts of the Walt Disney Company over their turning away from traditional family values. The popularity of things like the animated features continued a steady decline. That year's animated feature, Mulan isn't even featured.

You can see this once small family company has fully transformed into the global conglomerate people think of today. What a tremendous time capsule this is. There’s segments on the Disney/MGM Studios, EPCOT Center, Disney's Animal Kingdom park, and other attractions. 'N Sync perform a few songs and there's a segment with country music singer Martina McBride performing from the Diamond Horseshoe Revue and Donny Osmond performs a few songs from Mulan at the Disney/MGM Studios. In the film he was the singing voice of Li Shang. There was no Presidential greeting this year because Bill Clinton was waisst deep in the Lewinsky scandal. Several performers from the Disney animated features perform songs throughout the broadcast.

Disney was trying for the teenage demographic this year so they used two of their popular ABC stars to co-host this parade and even renamed it from the Very Merry Christmas Parade to A Magical Walt Disney World Christmas. The name would change back for a brief time in future broadcasts.

Caroline Rhea and Richard Kind co-host this parade with Justin Cooper providing segments from the recently opened Animal Kingdom theme park and Wayne Brady checking on from the Disney Cruiseline. Rhea was a co-star of the sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She was also appearing in multiple Disney TV specials at the time. Kind was a co-star on the sitcom Spin City at the time. He was also a co-star in that year's Pixar film A Bug's Life. Brady was the host of Who's Line Is It Anyway? and Cooper was a co-star on the sitcom Brothers Keeper.

Original air date December 25, 1998

Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.