Epcot: International Festival of the Holidays 2024 Guide
***Updated 12/03/24 with all the latest information
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 for 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 and the culinary delights of the Food and Wine Festival. These festivals culminate with the dazzling decorations and festive cheer of 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. The Festival runs from November 29, 2024 until December 30, 2024. Let's take a deeper dive into what makes the festival top notch.
A Grand and Miraculous Gingerbread Display - New for 2024
Inspired by Spaceship Earth, an 8-foot-tall geodesic sphere gingerbread creation made up of hundreds of hand crafter triangles. This display is found in CommuniCore Hall, and will light up and dance periodically throughout the day, just like the real Spaceship Earth. Along side this display you will find the Holiday Kitchen - Experimental Prototype Cookies of Tomorrow guests will be able to buy their own gingerbread kit complete with gingerbread triangles.
Deck CommuniCore Hall - Glittering Glove presented by Balsam Hill - New for 2024
An enchanting twinkling forest and seasonal décor will also be housed in CommuniCore Hall. This display is inspired by countries around the world showcase and other Epcot archtechture. Unique festival merchandise will be available for purchase here as well.
Do You Wanna Build a Snowflake? - New for 2024
Just outside of CommuniCore Hall in CommuniCore Plaza will be a snowflake decorating station. JOYFUL! A Celebration of the Season will be performing here as well this year, plus you can partake in food favorites from previous festivals at the new Holiday Kitchen Favorites of Festivals Past.
Seasonal Scents - New for 2024
Found on the walkway between the Imagination! pavilion and World Showcase will be Festive Fragrances presented by Scentsy. Stroll through this snow globe garden completely inspired by Scentsy’s seasonal scents. They will also be available for purchase in CommuniCore Hall.
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 kitchens at each country offer tradional food and sweets from different regions around the World Showcase. For 2024 there will be 15 different holiday kitchens, including two new ones at CommuniCore Hall. 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 onion from the Shi Wasu Holiday Kitchen. The list goes on and on! ***Click here for our post about all the different Holiday Kitches and their menus for 2024.
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.
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, they are also listed on our Festival of the Holidays food guide here) 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 the Creations Shop or World Traveler, plus many 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. **Updated for 2024
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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.
*** Updates for 2024
Canada
Canadian Holiday Voyageurs
2:20 PM, 3:30 PM, 4:35 PM, 5:35 PM, 6:45 PM, and 7:30 PM
United Kingdom
Father Christmas
11:45 AM, 12:35 PM, 1:30 PM, 2:20 PM, 3:50 PM, 4:50 PM, 5:35 PM, and 6:40 PM
France
Père Noël
10:00 AM, 11:05 AM, 12:10 PM, 12:50 PM, 2:20 PM, 3:25 PM, 4:30 PM and 5:15 PM
Between France & Morocco
Hanukkah Storyteller
12:00 PM, 1:00 PM, 1:50 PM, 2:50 PM, 3:45 PM, 5:05 PM, 5:50 PM, and 6:30PM
Japan
Daruma Storyteller
10:45 AM,11:45 AM, 12:45 PM, 1:35 PM, 2:35 PM, 4:15 PM, 5:00 PM, and 5:45 PM
Italy
La Befana
11:15 AM, 12:15 PM, 1:00 PM, 1:55 PM, 3:30 PM, 4:15 PM, 5:00 PM and 5:40 PM
China
Chinese Lion Dancer
12:00 PM, 1:00 PM, 2:00 PM, 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM
Norway
Mischievous Magical Barn Santa
11:40 AM, 12:30 PM, 1:35 PM, 2:45 PM, 4:20 PM, 5:20 PM, 6:10 PM and 7:00 PM
Mexico
Las Posadas Celebration
11:05 AM, 11:55 PM, 12:45 PM, 2:45 PM, 3:50 PM and 4:55 PM
The Odyssey Pavilion
Santa Greeting
Daily through December 24
11:00 AM, 12:30 PM, 2:00 PM, 3:30 PM, and 5:00 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 will be preforming at CommuniCore Plaza in 2024 at 1:05 PM, 2:10 PM, 3:15 PM, and 4:20 PM.
Voices of Liberty: The Dickens Carolers
The a cappella group preforms Christmas favorites at 11:15 AM, 12:00 PM, 12:45 PM, 1:30 PM, 2:15 PM, 3:30 PM, and 3:45 PM daily in the rotunda at The American Pavilion
CANDLELIGHT PROCESSIONAL **updated 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. Performance times for 2024 will be at 5:00 p.m., 6:45 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.
Below is a list of the performers and dates for the 2024 Candlelight Processional.
Josh Gad – November 29-30, 2024
Nico Santos (NEW for 2024) – December 1 and December 2, 2024
Chrissy Metz – December 3 through December 5, 2024
Whoopi Goldberg – December 6 and December 7, 2024
Tituss Burgess (NEW for 2024) – December 8 through December 10, 2024
Brendan Fraser – December 11 and December 12, 2024
Ralph Macchio (NEW for 2024) – December 13 and December 14, 2024
Gary Sinise – December 15 and December 16, 2024
Neil Patrick Harris – December 17 and December 18, 2024
Pat Sajak – December 19 through December 21, 2024
Gloria Estefan – December 22 and December 23, 2024
Edward James Olmos – December 24 through December 26, 2024
Sterling K Brown – December 27 and December 28, 2024
Jodi Benson – December 29 and December 30, 2024
2024 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.
***Updated for 2024
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