Epcot: International Festival of the Holidays

Updated: 6 days ago

Updated 9/30/24

One of our favorite things to check out and enjoy while visiting Walt Disney World are the Epcot Festivals. The park gets a whole new vibe with each festival, from the colorful art in every direction during the Festival of the Arts, to the glorious sights and smells during the Flower and Garden Festival, the OG festival, the one that started them all and still draws some of the biggest crowds to experience the culinary delights of the Food and Wine Festival, to the dazzling decorations and festive cheer during the Festival of the Holidays. Christmas time is one of the most magical times to spend at Disney, and the decorations, yummy treats, and entertainment at the International Festival of the Holidays are not to be missed. Let's take a deeper dive into what makes the festival top notch.

Food Booths

Who doesn’t love food! A hallmark of all the Epcot festivals are the food booths, each festival has a range of booths offering food and drinks themed to the ongoing festival. The pop-up holiday kitches at each country offer tradional food and sweets from different regions around the World Showcase. You can try Tamale de Barbacoa: Shredded barbacoa beef in a corn masa topped with mole negro, queso cotija, crema Mexicana, and pickled onions at Los Posadas Holiday Kitchen in Mexico, Bûche de Noël au Pain D’Épices, Ganache Chocolat au Lait et Noisettes: Gingerbread Christmas log with milk chocolate and hazelnut ganache from Le Marche De Noel Holiday Kitchen, or New Year Celebration Soba: Buckwheat soba noodles in a hot dashi soup with yuzu, shrimp tempura, and chopped green onio from the Shi Wasu Holiday Kitchen. The list goes on and on! ***The list of holiday kitchens has not been released for 2024, but we will update here as soon it is released

The festival is also a great place to sample a variety of drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. We are really looking forward to trying out a few of the more interesting holday cocktails and maybe a flight or two of something. There are wine, sangria, mimosa, cider, mulled wine, and beer flights scattered around at the different booths.

***Update: The sneak-peak for 2024 seems to indicate all of these plus more will be heading our way!

Holiday Cookie Stroll **update returning for 2024

Who doesn’t want an excuse to eat Christmas cookies? Disney lumps this in the scavenger hunt category but we feel it is more of a crawl, a cookie crawl, going to various booths to try out fabulous holiday dessert items and get a prize at the end for doing it. For this cookie crawl you’ll use your Festival Passport - which can be picked up at almost any festival location - to find select menu items at a variety of food booths all over the park. (For ease of finding the specified cookies we marked the relevant food booths on our map with a little cookie icon.) You will then track down and purchase any 5 of the featured delights (make sure to get your stamp with each purchase). Once you have 5 stamps, you can go to Shimmering Sips - located on the World Showcase Plaza near the Port of Entry - to present your stamps and get a specialty food item as a prize. If you have a sweet tooth like we do like us, this is a great excuse to try out a bunch of holiday sweets.

Olaf’s Holiday Traditions Expedition Scavenger Hunt **update returning for 2024

We love participating in the festival scavenger hunts, looking for Spike the Bee during Flower and Garden or sussing out the cleverly hidden Figments in art work during Festival of the Arts, or searching high and low for Remy or the different character pumpkins during Food & Wine are highlights of our past festival trips. For the Festival of the Holidays Olaf can be found all over the World Showcase participating in different holiday traditions. Scavenger hunt maps can be purchased for $9.99 at Disney Traders, Port of Entry, Creations Shop, World Traveler, or most festival merchandise kiosks. You’ll need to identify which item he is with in what country to finish the hunt. Once done you can return it to select locations - Disney Traders, Gateway Gifts, or World Traveler - for a prize. **princing and details for 2024 will be updated here as soon as it is released.

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World Showcase Storytellers

One of the most magical pieces of the International Festival of the Holidays are the World Showcase Storytellers. In each country a storyteller shares the holiday tradtions of that region and each and every one of them is a delight. We love taking the time to visit the different ones as we make our way through the World Showcase. Most performances are between 15 and 20 minutes long with the exception of Santa Claus at the Odyssey Pavillion which last for an hour. Note: Las Posadas Celebration is only available Thursdays through Sundays.

*** The following times were for 2023, we will update them for 2024 as soon as they are released

Canada
- Canadian Holiday Voyageurs
- 1:40 PM, 2:45 PM, 3:50 PM, 4:45 PM, 6:00 PM and 6:45 PM
United Kingdom
- Father Christmas
- 11:30 AM, 12:30 PM, 1:30 PM, 2:25 PM, 4:00 PM, 5:10 PM, 6:00 PM and 6:45 PM
France
- Père Noël
- 10:30 AM, 11:40 AM, 12:40 PM, 1:35 PM, 2:35 PM, 4:00 PM, 5:00 PM and 5:45 PM
Between France & Morocco
- Hanukkah Storyteller
- 10:30 AM, 11:40 AM, 12:40 PM, 1:35 PM, 2:35 PM, 4:00 PM, 5:00 PM and 5:45 PM
Japan
- Daruma Storyteller
- 11:35 AM, 12:35 PM, 1:40 PM, 2:40 PM, 4:20 PM, 5:15 PM, 6:00 PM, and 6:45 PM
Italy
- La Befana
- 11:15 AM, 12:15 PM, 1:00 PM, 2:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 4:15 PM, 5:00 PM and 5:50 PM
China
- Chinese Lion Dancer
- Noon, 1:00 PM, 2:00 PM, 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM
Norway
- Mischievous Magical Barn Santa
- 11:35 AM, 12:20 PM, 1:10 PM, 2:05 PM, 4:15 PM, 5:20 PM, 6:15 PM and 7:10 PM
Mexico
- Las Posadas Celebration
- ***Sundays - Thursdays only
- 11:05 AM, 11:55 PM, 12:45 PM, 2:45 PM, 3:50 PM and 4:55 PM
The Odyssey Pavilion
- Santa Claus
- Daily through December 24
- 11:00 AM, 12:30 PM, 2:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 5:00 PM and 6:30 PM

JOYFUL! A Celebration of the Season

Come celebrate celebrates Kwanzaa and Christmas with the Gospel and R&B vocals of JOYFUL. This staple of Festival of the Holidays preforms at the entrance to World Showcase at various times through the afternoon.

Voices of Liberty: The Dickens Carolers

The a cappella group preforms Christmas favorites at various times during the day in the rotunda at The American Pavilion

CANDLELIGHT PROCESSIONAL **update returning for 2024

Another constant from festival to festival is the live entertainment available most nights at the American Gardens Theater in the American Pavilion. The Candelight Processional is perhaps the most anticipated of these. In a moving performance, celebrites narrate the Chirstmas Story accompanied by a chior and 50 piece orchestra. Many families attend year after year for this experience alone.

Below is a list of the performers and dates for the 2023 Candlelight Processional.

***We will update with the narrators for 2024 as soon as it is released

Chrissy Metz (NEW for 2023): Nov. 24-25
Luis Fonsi (NEW for 2023): Nov. 26-27
Ann-Margret (NEW for 2023): Nov. 28
Ashley Eckstein: Nov. 29
Bart Millard: Nov. 30 + Dec. 1-2
John Stamos: Dec. 3-5
Neil Patrick Harris: Dec. 6-8
Marlee Matlin: Dec. 9-11
Brendan Fraser (NEW for 2023): Dec. 12-14
Eva Longoria (NEW for 2023): Dec. 15-16
Joey McIntyre (NEW for 2023): Dec. 17-18
Sterling K. Brown (NEW for 2023): Dec. 19-20
Jordan Fisher (NEW for 2023): Dec. 21-23
Steven Curtis Chapman: Dec. 24-26
Audra McDonald (NEW for 2023): Dec. 27-28
Lisa Ling: Dec. 29-30

2023 Epcot International Festival of the Holidays Map

When planning out our own Festival Experience we spent some time looking for the perfect map to tell us where the different booths were for our libations and snacking, and also where we could sit and beat the heat or the rain. We couldn't find exactly what we wanted, so we put one together ourselves! Here it is for you both online and as a downloadable pdf.