The Second Sense: Area Music at Christmastime

I've snarked about Christmas Creep a couple of times on this blog, but I'll be honest: I enjoy the Christmas season. And the thing I like most about it is not getting presents or watching corny Christmas specials, but the atmosphere. The weather becomes delightfully chilly (not exactly cold, here in Southern California), sparkling decorations go up everywhere, and it seems like the only time of year when mainstream society accepts the idea of benevolent magic—philosophically, if not in fact.

And the music! I know I'm not alone in having familiar Christmas music wired directly to the nostalgia centers of my brain. Religious or secular, it doesn't matter (and this is coming from someone who hasn't identified as Christian for at least twenty years). The highly specific context in which this music is usually heard is what gives it its power to enthrall: Because it is Christmas music, when we hear it we are psychologically transported to that intersection of time (winter), space (shopping malls, Grandma's house, a gingerbread village) and attitude (peace on earth and goodwill toward all) that the holiday represents. They say smell is the most emotionally charged sense, but in my experience, hearing can do just fine under the right circumstances.

Disneyland is awesome with Christmas music.

The park is awesome with Christmas in general. As I've mentioned before, it's still a newbie at Halloween, but it's had a lock on Christmas since...well, since December of 1955. Christmas parades, Christmas carolers, Christmas character costumes, Christmas versions of standard attractions. And of course, Christmas music. Practically every part of the park has at least one music loop swapped out for a Christmas-themed one at the tail end of the year. This being a post in the category of The Second Sense, it will be my very great pleasure to take you on a tour of all of them, starting outside the gates of Disneyland proper.

Armchair Imagineering: Arts & Crafts Shop

 (I originally posted this piece on DeviantArt long before I thought about dedicating an entire blog to my Disneyland observations and insights. I thought this would be a good time to post it here, inasmuch as we're heading into the holiday season, a very crafty time of year.)

Disneyland is all about imagination. Imaginative people create. Therefore, what could be more natural than an arts & crafts shop right in the park? Indeed, various craft supply lines have been carried there in the past, only to be phased out in favor of more generic, perhaps more high-turnover merchandise. But the time is right to bring them back! “Craftiness” is on the rise, as attested by the success of websites such as Etsy and Pinterest, and searching “Disney” or “Disneyland” on any such site is bound to bring up thousands of examples of creative works by fans. Why not cater to them directly? Let the park inspire its guests, and let the guests indulge their inspirations right on the spot in a retail facility made for the purpose! Everyone wins!

Such a shop could be installed almost anywhere in the park—given the tendency to have the larger retail locations carry redundant lines of merchandise, it could very well take over space from the Emporium, Pioneer Mercantile, or Star Trader without reducing Disneyland's ability to carry the more conventional items. The Disney Showcase is another shop that seldom offers anything not available in other spots nearby, and its prime location at the corner where Town Square meets Main Street makes it a great, eye-catching place to promote the new concept. It offers space enough to display a wide variety of items and can support the do-it-yourself design kiosks mentioned further down.

What sorts of arts and crafts supplies would be included in this “wide variety of items?” Almost anything! One shelf could be devoted to sewing, with bolts of fabric, sewing patterns, thread, and notions. Another could offer scrapbooking papers and embellishments. A third could present plaster figurines and paints to decorate them. Window displays would show off examples of finished works. Each section would feature a decorative sculpture of an appropriately creative character—Rapunzel for paints and canvas, Geppetto for woodworking, Cinderella's mice for sewing. And of course, many of the products inside would be Disney-specific, featuring popular characters. Pre-packaged kits for everything from Princess doll clothes to model Cars would drive home the point and give overwhelmed newbie crafters a place to start.

The most exciting merchandise, however, would be craft supplies that evoke not just Disney animation and characters, but the very theme park the shop resides in. Disney films are mainstream—if you want a few yards of Sleeping Beauty fleece to make a blanket for a child's bed, you can get it at Jo-Ann's. But if you're agog at the sight of Sleeping Beauty Castle and want to render it in cross-stitch, the instructions to do so don't exist in the outside world (except, perhaps, if devised by one of the aforementioned Etsy crafters). At this shop, they would, along with numerous other ideas and supplies to create a piece of Disneyland at home.

If all this seems a bit too slanted toward adult guests, not to worry—there would be plenty here for children too. An “Imagination Station” consisting of two or three computer kiosks would allow kids (and adults) to choose from pre-existing graphical elements (e.g. Disney characters, background scenes, text) in order to compose a design which they could then have printed as a poster, tee-shirt, or other souvenir and pick up later in the day. Most magical of all would be daily lessons in creating a simple themed craft, hosted by a Cast Member...or even a face character! This event (like the similar character drawing lesson in California Adventure) would be free to participate in, but the smaller class size would necessitate advance sign-ups in order to prevent overcrowding. Between the scheduled lessons, the tables would be stocked with Disneyland-themed coloring pages and crayons, also free to use.

Hardcore fans of Disneyland tend to lament the homogenization of in-park merchandise and the over-reliance on film- and character-related items that can easily be found outside—the net effect of which seems to make Disneyland less special. Management prefers such things because their instant recognizability—even to first-time guests—makes them easy to move. By combining character imagery with unique lines of merchandise that play to popular, growing hobbies, a compromise that enhances both factors can be reached. Disneyland and its guests deserve an arts and crafts shop!

Sentimental Paleontology: Our Musical Heritage of the Past

So Halloween is over now. You know what that means. Cue the army of mall Santas.

I'm not quite ready to go full eggnog myself. I want to try to ease into the Christmas-themed posts here, so I'll start tangential: What was the first attraction at Disneyland to be made over into an alternate version for the Christmas season? I guess in part it depends on what you mean by “alternate version of the attraction.” Specially designed Christmas parades at Disneyland go all the way back to 1957...but I wouldn't consider “the parade” to be an attraction per se. There have been many different parades in Disneyland's history, of which the Christmas ones are just a few. Our current iteration, A Christmas Fantasy, is not Soundsational! or any other “regular” parade with tinsel added to the floats; it has its own completely separate floats. So it's not an alternate version of the attraction so much as an alternate attraction.

But neither did seasonal attraction overlays begin during the much-maligned Pressler era. “it's a small world” was actually the second participant in a Disneyland tradition that goes back over thirty years—more than half the park's existence. So what was the first?

Just a little show in the back corner of the park called...the Country Bear Jamboree.

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!

Armchair Imagineering: Halloweenland

Disneyland has been in the Halloween business for less than a decade.

Oh, sure, there were bits and pieces. We've gotten a few jack-o-lanterns on Main Street for as long as I can remember. Seasonal character plush has a long history, Halloween included.* Haunted Mansion Holiday—which is treated like a Halloween overlay, even though it really isn't one—started in 2001.

But the first big, park-wide Halloween blowout wasn't until 2006.

It's kind of ironic, because other area theme parks have been doing Halloween events for a lot longer. Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights and Six Flags Magic Mountain's Fright Fest both date back to the early Nineties, and the first instance of Knott's Scary Farm was in 1973. So why was Disneyland so late to the Dead Man's Party?

Because of image, basically. Theme parks are entertainment venues. “Halloween” plus “entertainment” usually amounts to the horror genre. There are many ways of doing horror, but none of them are usually considered “family-friendly,” and since that's what Disney trades on, a typical theme park Halloween experience—strobe lights and haunted mazes and “scare-acters” leaping out at people and loud rave music—was right out. It was all part of the dichotomy that held sway throughout the Eighties and Nineties, in which Disneyland was considered “tame” and safe for families with young children, while all the other parks positioned themselves as the hip, edgy, teen-oriented alternative. Disneyland didn't need a big to-do for Halloween—in the theme park realm, it had a virtual monopoly on Christmas.

All this is so much rambling. The upshot is that Disneyland has not really been doing Halloween in a large-scale way for very long. And if you ask me (which hopefully you do, since you're reading my blog), the Powers That Be haven't really mastered it yet. Halloween Time still has a ways to go before it's really polished to Disney-caliber perfection. The seasonal decorations and themes are too sporadic throughout the park. I really think the place could benefit from a systematic, land-by-land makeover during this time. There are many dimensions to Halloween in the current era—a park as diverse as Disneyland could indulge them all.

So without further ado, here is my vision of Halloweenland!

After-Action Report: Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy

Can you believe it's October already? Bring on the Halloween-themed posts!

Space Mountain is probably the last ride you would expect to see dolled up for a holiday—any holiday. I mean...it's Space Mountain. There just aren't any major holidays where outer space is a big deal. Galaxy Day? All Comets' Eve? These are not actual things.

On the other hand, sometimes you get some interesting space motifs for Halloween. Aliens—abducting, probing, mutilating livestock, hunting us for sport, bleeding our planet dry*—are starting to take their place alongside more traditional horror monsters such as vampires and zombies and Swamp Things. Depending on whom you ask, they might be scarier than the old mainstays...after all, aliens might actually exist!

So maybe it's not too surprising that Space Mountain is the recipient of what is, in my eyes, the only proper Halloween overlay for a Disneyland attraction so far.