We’ve had a chance to visit both Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party with our toddler, and we have some thoughts. In this post, we’re going to discuss our experiences visiting those events with Zoe, including how it was different from what we’d usually do, what Zoe liked and didn’t like, and whether or not we think it’s worth it. Read on to learn about Visiting Disney World Holiday Parties with a Toddler.
About This Post + Related Posts
This post is not a guide to these two events and does not cover strategy for these in detail. We have separate posts on each event:
You could definitely plan a visit with a toddler with just those posts. This post provides us an opportunity to go a bit more in-depth on some relevant issues. We’ll cover the basics of the parties quickly below, but to learn everything they have to offer you’ll need those posts.
We also have a separate post that talks about bringing toddlers to Magic Kingdom in more detail and a Guide to Visiting Disney World with a Toddler.
Super Obvious Disclaimers / Caveats
While we discuss these things with lots of readers / followers / travel advisors, we are only two people with only one toddler. You know what’s best for your kid and what they might like and dislike. That said, there’s just no point in me writing “well if your kid likes this, do this!” for every item at these parties (that is, more or less, what the above-linked Complete Guides are for). So yea, I’m going to be writing based on our experiences. I’ll provide as much context as I think appropriate.
Basics of the Parties with Toddlers
We’ll quickly cover some of the need-to-know before getting into our commentary.
What are Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party?
These are events held on select nights in August-October (Halloween) and November-December (Christmas) at Magic Kingdom. They are ticketed and separate from the regular park admission for the day. These parties offer holiday-themed entertainment, activities, and character greetings that you won’t find in the park outside the party.
Do kids need tickets for the parties?
Everyone 3 and older needs a party ticket in order to experience the parties. Babies 2 and under do not need tickets for the party, but the accompanying adults will need tickets. (Read more about visiting Disney World with a newborn or infant.)
How much do kids tickets cost for the parties?
Tickets for kids 3-9 are usually about $10 cheaper than adult tickets. In 2023, Halloween party tickets for kids 3-9 ranged from $99 to $189, depending on date, and Christmas party tickets for kids 3-9 ranged from $139 to $169, depending on date.
Two Quick Sidebars About The Parties With Toddlers
There’s no good place to put these two specific points, but they’re both important.
First, in 2023 the parties introduced these absolutely awful pull-to-tighten cloth wristbands. If your child tightens them too much, you will not be able to loosen them, and you will have to go to guest services at the front of the park to remove them. They are also very difficult to get off without scissors even in the best of circumstances.
Second, you might consider your hotel pick more carefully for a visit to the parties with a toddler. Polynesian, Contemporary, and Grand Floridian are all walkable and served by the monorail. Polynesian and Grand Floridian are also served by the boat service. These are all better options than having to get on a Disney bus to a different hotel, but of course they come at a cost.
What is there for kids to do at Not So Scary and Very Merry?
Let’s talk about the different things to do at the parties. I’ll go into specific discussion of each party next, but this section should give you a good idea of what the party offers and how good we think those things are for toddlers. These are roughly sorted from “best for parties with toddlers” to “worst for parties with toddlers.”
Character Greetings. Characters are one of the highlights of the holiday parties. You’ll find rare characters and characters in rare, themed outfits during this time. If your kid is still too young to enjoy meeting characters this part might not be for you, but for kids who like characters, this can be the part of the trip focused around characters.
Dance Parties. These are likely to be a much bigger part of your night with a toddler than if you’re visiting without one. There are 1-2 dance parties ongoing during the party. These give the kids a chance to listen to Disney music and dance, sometimes with characters.
Snacks / Trick-or-Treating. At the Halloween party, kids can “trick or treat” through various stations with Cast Members handing out complimentary candy. During the Christmas party, a handful of stations around the park hand out complimentary holiday cookies and beverages. (There are also paid, party-exclusive snacks.)
Parades. Both parties have feature parades—Boo to You at Not-So-Scary and Once Upon A Christmastime at Very Merry. These are both big hits with kids, although some of the Boo to You sets are a little creepy.
Fireworks. I imagine this one is actually either best or worst for your kid, so I’ve settled on putting it in the middle. Each party has exactly one firework show. Both the Halloween and Christmas firework shows are good shows, but really this one will come down to whether your kid is pro- or anti-fireworks. On this plus side, if they’re not into fireworks, you can feel free to take advantage of shorts waits for basically everything else.
A big mistake we made was including these fireworks as part of our ongoing effort to get Zoe over a fear of fireworks. What a massive waste of valuable time! Zoe hated the fireworks (as expected), and we missed out on valuable party time that could have been used for anything else.
Overlaid Rides. A few (no more than 5) rides have special overlays for the parties. For example, Mad Tea Party gets themed music and lighting. If your kid meets the height requirements for the overlaid rides, we think they’re a good use of time.
Stage Shows. Each party has shows performed multiple times at the castle and Tomorrowland stages. I’ll talk in more depth about these later (since they’re quite different at the two parties). The stage shows vary between the parties, and you definitely can have kids who love them all, kids who aren’t interested in them,
Regular Rides. Most of Magic Kingdom’s rides run during these events. Generally, we don’t recommend rides during these events because the combination of mild waits, high event prices, and other offerings make rides a bad use of time. With small kids, though, you’ll probably be able to focus on rides with the shortest waits. Still, if you’ve got a regular visit to Magic Kingdom planned as part of your visit, that’s when you want to focus on rides.
Basic Party Scheduling With a Toddler
Here’s a look at the important times you need to know for the parties. These vary by party and even by specific date, but I’m using this rough outline to discuss how you can plan your visit…
4PM Party guests allowed into Magic Kingdom
6PM Park closes to regular guests
7PM Party officially begins
8PMish Start of entertainment
9PMish First running of parade
10PMish Only fireworks show
11PMish Second running of parde
12AM End of party
You can probably immediately figure out how this goes. Most families with young kids focus their night on catching the earlier parade time and then leaving right after the fireworks.
From 4PM to 7PM, there are minimal party activities ongoing. Usually, this time is good for either rides or select major character greetings that start early (usually Jack & Sally and the Seven Dwarfs). Some ride overlays might begin after 6PM but before 7PM.
You’ll usually have a small buffer right at 7PM before you have to start paying attention to the entertainment schedule. Then around 8PM, if you’re planning to catch the various stage shows, you’ll need to start planning your visits to those.
Are Not So Scary and Very Merry Too Late for Toddlers?
We’ve found that the holiday parties pushed Zoe to the edge but not beyond a schedule they could handle. First, Zoe still takes an afternoon nap daily. We make that a later nap on the party nights, which helps but also cuts into our pre-party time.
Second, we don’t stay much later than the fireworks. If you watch the fireworks from the end of Main Street, you can beat the crowds exiting. There are a lot of buses running at this time because it’s the most popular time to exit the party, so you shouldn’t have a long commute back to your hotel (don’t try Minnie Vans during this time, there’s too much demand).
Third, we definitely don’t plan a rope drop the next morning…though it doesn’t usually matter. Zoe has no skill for sleeping in, so the day after the party is a challenging one in any case.
Next we’re going to move onto the specific parties. While I’m mostly going to focus on the differences between the two, there will be some repetitive things that are pros/cons of both parties.
Should you visit Not So Scary with a toddler?
The biggest “pro” to bringing a toddler to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is something I haven’t even mentioned yet—costumes. Before I had a kid, I didn’t really appreciate that Halloween can be an entire season of activities. Now, we’ve got a lineup of activities that Zoe gets to dress up for from August to October, starting with Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.
This ties directly into the trick-or-treating at the Halloween party. I imagine this diminishes in value for older kids, but at Zoe’s age every bit of trick or treating is a thrill. I wish the Halloween party had characters giving out candy or at least making appearances at the stations, but Zoe at least had a fine time with it as is.
I think seeing the characters in costume, as opposed to just in holiday outfits, gives the greetings at the Halloween party a little more flare, too. But that’s not a huge thing.
The “con” to bringing a toddler to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is that the ambiance is, well, a little creepy. It’s all in good fun, to be clear. This is NOT Halloween Horror Nights. Even the short-lived Villains After Hours was creepier than this.
But the stage show is centered around the Hocus Pocus witches and Disney villains. The parade is a mix of costumed characters with villains and creepy performers, like the gravediggers and Hitchhiking Ghosts.
Should you visit Very Merry With a Toddler?
While the ambiance of Not So Scary is (arguably) a “con” for that party, the ambiance of Very Merry is an absolute “pro” if you’re thinking about visiting with a toddler.
You’ll have Main Street decked out in its holiday best, including periodic snowfalls. The main stage shows are Frozen Holiday Surprise and Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration, both a ton of fun featuring a ton of fan favorite characters and no villains.
The treat (cookie and beverage) stations aren’t going to be anywhere near as fun as trick or treating for kids, though. (Still tasty, to be clear.) The families that get the most out of Very Merry are probably the ones you see in matching outfits, but I don’t think even that quite captures the fun of wearing a costume that you get at Not So Scary.
Very Merry has the very fun Tomorrowland Speedway holiday overlay. If your kid is at least 32”, they can ride with you on Tomorrowland Speedway. If not, you can ride PeopleMover, which offers views of both the Tomorrowland Speedway and Space Mountain overlays.
Which is better for a toddler—Not So Scary or Very Merry?
You can see from the above discussions that this really could go either way. But based on our experiences so far, we’ll pick a winner…
Personally, we felt like Zoe had a better time at Not So Scary than Very Merry, but it was a close call. The bottom line is that while basically everything else evened out, getting to trick or treat and wear a costume set Not So Scary apart.
The parades at both parties were a big hit, as were the dance parties and character greetings. Zoe doesn’t like fireworks. Zoe is into Halloween ambiance overall, so Not So Scary was a fun environment, not a scary one. The only exception was that Zoe wanted nothing to do with the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular stage show.
But there’s a pretty big problem with this analysis…over $100 for trick or treating? Really? This brings us to a related question. Which party is more “worth it” for a toddler? In this case I think it’s pretty easy to make the case for Very Merry.
There are two specific things that really set Very Merry ahead when it comes to value. The first is its two stage shows. Technically you can see the Frozen Holiday Surprise during regular park hours, but Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration is unique to the party.
The second is the Tomorrowland Speedway overlay (for kids 32” and greater). Zoe loves the ride and loved the overlay. We don’t like the ride, but we really like the overlay.
It’s important to clarify I’m not saying “the ride overlay makes the party worth it.” I’m saying “this unique ride overlay helps make Very Merry more worth it than Not So Scary.” You could roughly say that between 7PM and 10PM you have time for six things, so one unique thing really makes a difference.
Whether either of the parties is “worth it” with a kid is a separate question. Specifically, I think you probably want to review our Complete Guides for the parties in order to determine that. But this sort of brings us to the elephant in the room and the reason I’m writing this post in the first place…
The Big Decision You Need to Make About the Parties
When you’re at Disney World for a trip of several days, you’re going to find time for fun for everyone. Some of it will be stuff for just the parents, some of it will be just for the kids, and some of it will be family fun. But when it comes time for the party…you need to at least come in with an idea of who you’re prioritizing—kids or parents. If you’re planning to leave after the fireworks, you’ve basically got three hours of party activities (7PM to 10PM). That time will fly by.
Of course everyone should still have a good time. But the things Zoe likes most at the parties are the Dance Parties, getting treats, and meeting characters. Zoe hates fireworks and doesn’t care for the stage shows. I have literally written for years that the fireworks and stage shows are the cornerstone of the party experience, and I stayed far away from dance parties until Zoe came along. Just about the only thing we all agree on is that the parades are awesome.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with telling your kid you’re going to watch all the entertainment and fit in a character or two and treats when you can. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with spending the whole party in line for your kid’s favorite character and at dance parties. But maybe don’t hype your kid up with promises of trick or treating and characters just to force them to sit through things they aren’t interested in (or worse, are terrified by).
This was a mistake we made. Zoe is neutral, at best, when it comes to stage shows. So of course when we talked about the parties we didn’t fixate on them. We weren’t trying to hide the ball, there’s just no reason to hype things they don’t care. But then we get to the party and they’ve got us dragging them back and forth between Tomorrowland and the castle when all they wanted to do were the things we hyped, like meeting Santa Goofy and dancing with Doc McStuffins.
Probably in future years, Emily and I would watch the stage shows separately while the other did something fun with Zoe. We prefer mostly family time, but compromises probably have to be made. We may or may not skip the fireworks entirely (we’ll hope to get Zoe into them sooner rather than later).
This is a long way of saying that strategizing the holiday parties is really difficult. It’s even more difficult when you’re cutting out the last 90 minutes of the party because of an early bedtime. And it’s somehow even more difficult when you’ve got kids and adults whose interests may be wildly diverging for the limited time you have.
All in all, though, we don’t regret bringing Zoe to the parties at all. We’ve gone to each as a family (so two total visits so far) and felt like we were pushing Zoe a bit too hard one night and that they handled the other night perfectly. That’s about par for the course for travel with a toddler. We’re looking forward to next year, when we’ll definitely go in with a different mindset and see how we can improve on our time at Disney’s wonderful holiday events.
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Learn More About The Holidays at Walt Disney World
Want to learn more about Christmastime at Walt Disney World? For starters, we've got a Guide to Christmas at Walt Disney World, which introduces you to everything you need to know.
Need more specifics? You'll want to read about the park that gets the most Magical decorations in our post on Christmas at Magic Kingdom. You'll also want to read about Flurry of Fun—the Christmas celebration at Hollywood Studios, the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays, and the Holiday Celebrations at Animal Kingdom.
But the flagship event of the season is Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party—and our guide has you covered with everything you need to know. Or check out the quick version in our 12 Tips for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.
Last but not least, let's not forget that the celebrations don't stop at the parks! You can visit our post on Christmas decorations at the Disney World hotels to see how even the hotels get into the spirit! Even Disney Springs gets in on the action, with bar overlays and an awesome Christmas Tree Trail! It’s a great time of year at Walt Disney World resort!