Kidnap the Magic: Disneyland Christmas Ornaments

We can start thinking about Christmas decorations now, right?

One year, my Christmas decorations revolved around a Disneyland theme. Before you roll your eyes and go “Well, duh,” you should be aware that I choose a different decorating scheme every year, and usually it's color-based. For instance, this year, my colors are red, green, gold, and purple.

But one year, I just couldn't settle on a palette for some reason, so I went with Disneyland. I used all the various mouse-eared ornaments I've picked up at the park itself, tied loops of string to my die-cast ride vehicles to turn them into ornaments and since that wasn't enough to really fill out my tree...I made a bunch more. I made an entire set based on the Small World Promenade Wreaths, using 6” snowflake ornaments as backdrops. I gave those away to a friend some years ago, but I still have some others that I put together:

And I do mean put together. These ornaments are assemblages of elements. Disneyland is far from my only subject matter when it comes to creating ornaments like these,* but I'm sure it's the one you're interested in. They're actually pretty easy to make, if time-consuming...but you do need special materials that are not necessarily easy to acquire. Said materials are as follows:

Kidnap the Magic: Another Themed Party Masterpost

(Continued from last week.)

In all my Kidnap the Magic posts, I haven't touched California Adventure once. So this should be interesting.

Disney California Adventure

The concept of a theme party celebrating California makes about as much sense as the concept of a theme park celebrating California...which is to say, it makes as much sense as you put into it. I have Definite Opinions about how California Adventure could have been a hit from the start, if only they'd kept in mind what they were actually building.* That said, California is still kind of a weird theme for a party...and a hard one to convey unless, like, you bake cookies in the shape of the state map or something. Making the theme of the party in fact a Disney theme park based on California just complicates matters further. There's no instantly recognizable set of icons comparable to the “Mickey Mouse + castle” I identified for Disneyland last week.

Kidnap the Magic: A Themed Party Masterpost

With a new year comes new calendars...and for many people, the activity of marking off portions of them for holidays and vacations. It is the former that concerns us today.

Under my Kidnap the Magic tag, I have offered several ideas for party themes based on Disneyland attractions, most of them keyed to specific holidays or seasonal events. It's been quite a while, because I ran out of suitably thematic holidays well before I ran out of possible themes. But I still want to fill in those gaps, hence this post: a one-stop shop for all your basic guidelines for planning themed parties based on the Happiest Place on Earth.

For each area in the resort, I'll outline a few different aspects. Themes refers to party themes, not park themes, and basically boils down to which section(s) of the big-box party store you should scour for decorations and the like. These are often seasonally specific, but no worries—it's not unusual to be loved by anyone for a large store to stock some of everything year-round, and a whole lot of whatever is coming up soon on the calendar. Food and Music should be pretty self-explanatory. And finally Disney Movies you can tap for imagery, party entertainment, or other inspiration, covering not just those movies which actually tie in to the local attractions, but also those with a similar setting or vibe. Unusually for me, I'll address both animated and live-action films, because not to do so...would be pretty silly, as we'll see.

Kidnap the Magic: Wonderland Leaves

With Easter less than a week away, you might be thinking about spring and summer decorating motifs for your home and garden. It's the season of leaves and flowers, and for some people, there's no need to be weird about it—real plants and/or realistic silk floral will be fine. But some of us might prefer something a little more...specific. More stylized. More relevant to our unique interests.

More like the art of Mary Blair, amirite?

 Mmmmmm...artistic...

Kidnap the Magic: The Art of the Disneyland Font (Part 2)

So I called a general meeting of the blog staff, which was pretty easy since this is a one-woman show. We—that is, I—came to the conclusion that we should move the weekly post from Sundays to Mondays. The benefit to us—me—is that if I'm running a little low on inspiration, I have the whole weekend to cram instead of just Saturday. The benefit to you is that this post is up now, instead of six days from now.

I am assuming, of course, that anyone is still here. So...is anyone still here? Sorry to leave you all hanging like that, but you know how the holidays can be. What was I talking about again? Oh, right—fonts you can use for Disneyland-related printed projects!

Kidnap the Magic: The Art of the Disneyland Font (Part 1)

I've been wanting to do a post about fonts for quite a while. They're such amazing bits of software—negligible in size, easy and quick to install, and then you can open any word-processing program on your computer and type fancy letters! Or even pictures! Just type them!

Why now? Firstly, why not now? Secondly, the holiday season typically involves greeting cards and party invitations, and the creative among us might like to design our own instead of buying pre-made ones. And supposing your party and/or greetings are Disneyland themed? Hopefully, you will find this brief guide enlightening.

There are thousands upon thousands of individual fonts available for completely free download online. The really high-quality ones cost money, but unless you're looking to do professional-grade work, freeware usually suffices. A simple Google search for “Disney fonts” yields good results if your primary interest is films and characters—and there's certainly enough of that to go around in the theme parks—but “Disneyland fonts” is a less fruitful endeavor.* A few specialist websites such as The Disney Experience and Mickey Avenue are invaluable, but the fact remains that you're almost more likely to stumble across an incredible gem while browsing through a massive general archive, than searching for one specifically.

The long and the short of it is that only a handful of lettering styles specific to Disneyland attractions (or best known in that context) have been created as fonts for general use by the public. But most of the park signage actually uses pre-existing typefaces, many of which have been adapted into freeware versions.** This is where the aforementioned Mickey Avenue really shines. And when it comes to bringing across the atmosphere of a given land or attraction, it’s more about the type of lettering you use.

Thousands upon thousands. This is going to be fun.

Kidnap the Magic: Disneyland Jack-o-Lanterns

Okay, help me out here. When did Halloween pumpkin carving become so...awesome? When I was a kid, riding my giant ground sloth to the playground, everyone I knew just drew a few triangles and circles on a pumpkin and cut them out with a kitchen knife. I felt fancy if I managed to include pupils in the eyes. I remember starting to see those specialty carving kits with the gnome-sized miter saws when I was in my teens,* and sometime between then and now, it just exploded as an artform.

Pumpkin has become a medium of sculpture in its own right—a feat all the more impressive when you remember that these globoid gourds are available only seasonally and the resulting creations are necessarily ephemeral. Despite its fragility, in the hands of an expert carver the flesh of a pumpkin can hold fine details as well as soft wood, and its translucency allows for subtle shading effects that only become apparent when the candle inside is lit. At the extreme end, we get stuff like this:

Most people probably don't have it in them to create anything that elaborate—I know I don't—but “rough image of a face” is no longer the default. Between the aforementioned carving kits and the widely available pattern templates, even the average neighborhood candy-giver is as likely to have pumpkins carved to resemble miniature scenes, or favorite media characters, as simple faces.

And occasionally, they turn to a Disney theme park for inspiration.

Disney jack-o-lanterns, per se...those are everywhere. Always quick to jump on the bandwagon of anything child-focused, Disney prints loads of pumpkin templates, in little booklets themed by character family. You've got your Mickey & Friends, your Princess, your Winnie The Pooh, your Pixar, probably your Jake and the Neverland Pirates. If you want a design specifically related to the parks, though, you're on your own. Naturally.

Nonetheless, some people pull it off, and it is my very great pleasure to show you some examples of their work. I had to work a bit harder than I anticipated (with some much appreciated help from The Sister) to collect all these...it turns out that Googling “Disneyland jack-o-lantern” doesn't bring up many examples of homemade carvings by private citizens.

So without further ado...

Kidnap the Magic: A Main Street, USA Memorial Day

I felt conflicted about this one at first. I am well aware that a significant portion of my regular readership is Canadian (Hi, Cory!), and there's not really anything here for people outside the United States. But then I thought, what the heck, it's not like anyone comments on the themed party ideas anyway. If I'm honest, I have to admit that posting them at all is pure self-indulgent self-congratulation on my part, the equivalent of standing on a table and waving my arms and shouting “I found a thing that's like another thing!” but with more and fancier words.

Anyway, it's been a while.

So tomorrow is Memorial Day in the U.S. It kind of snuck up on us, didn't it? Or maybe it's just me. If you have some kind of shindig arranged for your day off, now might be a little late to change those plans. But if you're reading this in the morning, you do technically have the entire rest of the day to tweak your decisions! Furthermore, Memorial Day marks the start of the American cultural summer season, which features patriotic holidays at regular intervals. One “U-S-A!” day is pretty much like another when it comes to party decorations and whatnot—you could apply these ideas to the Fourth of July or Labor Day or even Flag Day.*

So say you're a Disneyland fan who wants to host a Memorial Day or other patriotic holiday get-together, and as is your wont, you wish to mix a little theme park in there. Obviously you're going to go with some Main Street, USA flavor. Within the berm, Main Street and American patriotism are practically synonymous. (Although the thesaurus does list “Frontierland” under Related Words.)

This is no coincidence—unironic patriotism pretty much took its current form during the time period represented by Main Street—the last period, maybe, when Americans were still isolated and innocent enough that they could be loudly patriotic without implied belligerence or smugness toward any other countries? I don't want this to get heavy, though, so let's just say that Main Street's brand of wholesome, matter-of-fact national pride is what most people are usually going for with these holidays. In short, this sort of theming for this sort of party is perfectly natural, and if your guests don't already know you're gaga for Disneyland, this won't necessarily be what tips them off. (This may or may not be what you're hoping for.)

Kidnap the Magic: NOS Holiday Wall Decoration

Don't you love New Orleans Square during the holidays? I do. It's totally gorgeous.

Oooooh!

Aaaaaaaahhhh!

Damn, I miss the Court of Angels.

These days, the lampposts receive arrays of décor like this:

Originally, though, they were decorated in a slightly more restrained fashion with the ornaments on and in a base of evergreen. That's how it was some years ago when I decided to try my own version of a New Orleans Square-style Christmas decoration, and that's what I'm going to instruct you in here. Since very few of us have 19th-Century vintage wrought-iron lampposts handy to hang things on, this can go on your wall or door, like a wreath. It's a very modular project, and no glue is involved so you can disassemble it after the holidays are over and perhaps try varying it up in years to come! You can find most of what you need at any big craft store such as Michael's or Jo-Ann's.

Kidnap the Magic: Small World Promenade Holiday Wreath

One of the most distinctive holiday decorating schemes at Disneyland can be found on the Small World Promenade. While Chester* rocks his Santa hat and colored lights, fourteen white wreaths themed to different countries and regions as depicted on the ride line the walkway, building anticipation via their familiar central insignia and “supporting casts” of witty ornaments.

I don't know who in Imagineering is responsible for this...but I like it! So much so that several years ago, I made a set of tree ornaments based on the wreaths, using snowflakes as the base (since I couldn't find white mini-wreaths at an economical price) and variously shaped sequins for the ornaments. But this is Kidnap the Magic, and I'm going to offer you a more ambitious project: An actual wreath decorated the same way as the ones in the park, scaled down just enough to fit comfortably in the average home.

Kidnap the Magic: Decorating for Christmas...Disneyland Style!

Thanksgiving* is only a few days away, if you can believe that. Once the dishes are cleared away, the Christmas season Officially Begins on a nationwide scale. Due to the increased prominence of online shopping (and a few high-profile tragedies engendered by the pressure-cooker atmosphere of certain “mega-sales”), Black Friday is starting to slide off its throne as the shopping day of the season...but a lot of people still like to take advantage of the day off to do their decorating.

And perhaps some of those people would like to decorate in the style of the Happiest Merriest Place on Earth. They could just drop a wad of dough on ornaments sold at the parks, but that wouldn't actually do the trick. Odd as it may seem, the fictional denizens of Disneyland do not decorate using real Disneyland merchandise. Our hypothetical people will need some pointers. Fortunately for those people, they live in a world that includes this blog.

This post is going to include general guidelines rather than step-by-step instructions. Disneyland's Christmas decorations are, as a rule, magnificent, and it's really inspiring to us crafty types to see how the various area themes intersect with holiday imagery and traditions. It would almost be missing the point to try recreating most of these uniquely designed items exactly, especially since they evolve over the years. So peruse, enjoy the photos, and get some awesome ideas for a Disneyland-flavored Christmas of your own!

Kidnap the Magic: How to Be a Theme Park for Halloween

This is a first for this blog: a Kidnap the Magic entry about something other than a themed party! I have numerous Disneyland-related craft project ideas, some of which I've actually done, but I haven't shared any yet because I haven't yet gotten in the habit of photo-documenting my works in progress. I did get a few good pics of this one, though, and the time is definitely right!

So a couple years ago, I was fortunate enough to attend Mickey's Halloween Party, the separately ticketed event that runs at Disneyland during the Halloween season. It's pretty much the only time when adults are allowed to enter the park in full-on, unambiguous costumes, and boy, did the guests ever take advantage of the fact. Practically everyone there was in some kind of Disney character costume. Many were obviously store-bought, but quite a few more were just as obviously homemade. Some people even went as Disneyland characters, such as the Haunted Mansion's Tightrope Walker AKA Alligator Gal, or recognizable individual buccaneers from Pirates of the Caribbean.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who showed up dressed as a ride, though.

I decided at the outset that I wanted to have a costume directly related to Disneyland, and not just to Disney's film library. When I hit on the idea of going as the “it's a small world” Clock Tower...I couldn't not do it. That's the sort of inspiration that strikes maybe once a year. Suddenly my head was full of ways to translate all those blocky shapes and clock gizmos into clothing on a human figure. I knew I had a winner.

I also knew I had my work cut out for me. The problem with choosing such an offbeat, niche-interest costume as the Clock Tower—or any other Disneyland icon that didn't originate in a movie—is that there are few to no pre-existing resources to help you out. From design to execution, you have to come up with it all yourself.

Wait...did I say “problem?” I meant invigorating challenge. There's a lot of satisfaction in creating your own unique costume and wearing it in a setting where it will be appreciated. If that sort of challenge sounds like your spinning cup of tea, read on while I walk you through the phases of my own such project.

Kidnap the Magic: A Haunted Mansion Halloween

I've really been looking forward to this one. Of the several Disneyland themed party ideas I've shared so far, this is the only one I've actually tried for myself, rather than merely speculating upon. So quell those doubts, readers—this stuff's been field-tested in advance by Yours Truly and my then-housemates!

Kidnap the Magic: Talk Like a Pirate of the Caribbean Day

September is here at last, bringing with it (hopefully) cooler weather, quieter households...and on the 19^th of the month, the most beloved holiday that never got its own section in a Hallmark store: International Talk Like a Pirate Day! It's not hard to see why this “holiday” took off the way it did—it asks so little of you. You don't have to buy anyone a gift or a card, or spend hours decorating your house, or sit through a long church service. All you have to do is alter your speech patterns in accordance with a well-known pop-cultural archetype.

But why stop there? Talking Like a (Hollywood) Pirate is fun and all, but maybe a little too easy. The name hasn't changed, but for many people, Talk Like a Pirate Day is also Dress Like a Pirate Day, Fly the Jolly Roger Like a Pirate Day, and Watch Pirate Movies* Day.

Even...perhaps...Throw a Pirate-Themed Party Day! And when it comes to pirate theming, nobody has more vivid mental images than devotees of Disney parks. This is probably because the original version of Pirates of the Caribbean, the ride, installed at Disneyland in 1967, is the best theme park attraction ever built. As an iconic fantasy depiction of piracy in the Age of Sail, it's second only to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. As a first-person experience, it's simply incomparable. It's got its own specific imagery, its own instantly recognizable soundtrack, its own unique smell. If you want your Talk Like a Pirate Day party to take its cues from the ride—and if you consider yourself a Disneyland fan, then you do, no two ways about it—then you have plenty of material to work with that will make your guests go “Hey...this is that ride!”

What you don't have a lot of is convenient shortcuts. Make no mistake—“Pirate” is one of the big themes in your average party store, and you can even find Pirates of the Caribbean branded items...but naturally it's all to do with the film franchise. Use it anyway if you like; these days Jack Sparrow is on the ride, after all. But if you really want to evoke the ride itself, Party City and its brethren will be of very little help. And nor will much of anything else in the retail arena. It's just that unique.

So what can you do?

You can do what brought us the marvels of Pirates of the Caribbean to begin with. You can Imagineer.

This isn't going to be like my other Disneyland party ideas, where I take you through all the major facets of party planning including ideas for food, games, and music. The food should be sumptuous, the games should revolve around treasure maps, and if you follow this blog but can't think of any music that reminds you of Pirates of the Caribbean, then there's simply no help for you. Rather, this post is going to highlight some specific things you can do to create a Pirates of the Caribbean-style atmosphere...be it for a party or any other reason!

Kidnap the Magic: Jungle Cruise Cookout

Can you believe it's August already? Where is the year going? Before you know it, it will be Labor Day, and then the kids will go back to school, and then you'll start seeing Halloween stuff everywhere, and The Holidays Will Be Upon Us.

But in the meantime, there's still plenty of summer left—plenty of hot weather and late sunsets and not a lot of other commitments involving school or calendar holidays. Perfect conditions, in other words, for a barbecue! You know where else the weather is hot, the demands of civilization have little to no hold on you, and people cook over open fires? The untamed jungle. So for this installment of Kidnap the Magic, I'll give suggestions for turning your cookout party into a Jungle Cruise-themed extravaganza!

Kidnap the Magic: Enchanted Tiki Luau

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Spring has sprung and the weather is warming up! It's the time of year when people start to think about moving their recreational activities outdoors, and one of the classics is the luau. A better term might actually be “Hawaii theme party,” since we mainlanders don't usually follow all the genuine island traditions, but “luau” is the accepted term used by all the party supply stores. Luau gear is in abundance all throughout the spring and summer in the U.S.—all the leis, tiki torches, and plastic piña colada glasses molded to look like coconut halves that you could want.

But this isn't just any party planning guide. This is the Disneyland Dilettante! And when a Disneyland aficionado gets it into their head to hold a luau, there's only one place to go...

To the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room!

In this issue of Kidnap the Magic, I'll provide tips for turning your party space into a tropical hideaway for the lucky people you welcome there.

Kidnap the Magic: A Good Old-Fashioned New Orleans (Square) Mardi Gras

Quick! What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about New Orleans?

Well, if you're a Disneyland nut like me (and you probably are, or you wouldn't be reading this blog), you immediately think “Square” and then start singing “Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)” and/or “Grim Grinning Ghosts” until they throw you out of Macy's. But beyond that...there are still a lot of answers. New Orleans is one of the most culturally distinctive cities in the United States, if not the most. Everyone knows what kind of music (jazz, particularly the Dixieland variety), food (gumbo and jambalaya, to start with), and religion (Voodoo) comes from there. But no matter where your interests lie, there's one thing that's certain to make your New Orleans Free Association Top Ten, and that's Mardi Gras.

It wasn't until fairly recently that this holiday caught on anywhere else in the U.S. I blame Protestant dominance—Protestants don't observe Lent* and hence have no need for a last-ditch hedonistic bash before the austerities commence. As general hedonism has become fashionable in the modern day, Americans of all stripes will take any excuse they can get for a drinking party, but all the same, Mardi Gras has been indelibly stamped as a New Orleans tradition. Wherever in the country you live, when you decide to throw a Mardi Gras party, you're sort of committing yourself to serving shrimp and mint juleps and playing jazz.

But that doesn't mean you can't put a special spin on it. In this, the first of (hopefully) many Kidnap the Magic project ideas, I'll instruct you, fellow Disneyland fan, in how to make your Mardi Gras party not just a taste of New Orleans, but a taste of New Orleans Square.

* An alternate hypothesis is that they observe Lent all year-round.

The Kinds of Things You Can Expect

This is just a quick rundown of some of the categories of posts I will make as this blog continues. You'll see these in post titles as well as tags.

• After-Action Report: In which I review something currently at Disneyland. Not necessarily something brand-new, but something you could go see for yourself.

• Armchair Imagineering: In which I pretend I have any decision-making power over what gets built at Disneyland. Less obliquely, Armchair Imagineering is my term for something that most hardcore fans of the theme parks do from time to time, which is coming up with my own ideas for rides, shows, parades, shops, restaurants, and anything else that might be installed there.

• Imagineering Theory: In which I offer guidelines for people wanting to try their own hand at Armchair Imagineering. This category is probably me at my most pretentious.

• Kidnap the Magic: In which I describe a creative means of replicating that distinctive Disneyland vibe right in the comfort of your own home, garage, and/or yard.

• Sentimental Paleontology: In which I gush over something I miss from Disneyland's past.

That's all I can think of for now, but I'll probably come up with others. I have a lot of thoughts about Disneyland, after all.