For years we’ve sang the praises of Disney California Adventure’s festivals. From the holidays to Lunar New Year to Food & Wine, we’ve come away impressed with what each offers. While they may not be as big of a scale as Epcot’s on the east coast, that can play to DCA’s benefit with a more intimate and personal experience. We felt this way until 2024’s Food & Wine Festival which was a step back in many ways. Thankfully, that seems to be a temporary setback as this year’s Festival of Holidays is our favorite festival that the park, and Disney as a whole, has ever done.

What makes up a good festival is certainly in the eye of the beholder but it seems that Disney focuses in on two variables – food (and drinks) and entertainment. It’s hard to argue with those, as I’m not sure what else a theme park’s festival can include. Entertainment is a broad term and could be anything from concerts to topiaries or art displays. Whatever fits the theme of the festival works there.

Simply put, California Adventure just can’t keep up with Epcot in terms of food & drinks. There is not enough space or infrastructure. California Adventure uses a couple of areas for their festivals, stretching along the park’s main walkway and using the corner of Hollywood Land. Meanwhile, Epcot has 1.2 miles to work with and still stretches into other sections of the park. That’s so much space for Festival Marketplaces (a fancy name for food booths)!

With the space deficit, I’m always hopeful that California Adventure goes with a quality over quantity belief when it comes to food at festivals. Sometimes they do! Being a more local park and on the west coast affords Disneyland Resort the opportunity to try some interesting recipes. They don’t always land but I’d love to see them keep pushing in this direction. 2024’s Festival of Holidays did a decent job in bringing a few inspired offerings to the table but that’s not what made the event stand out.

Entertainment is the bell cow for Festival of Holidays and that’s what makes it better than ever. Despite that lack of space, the park has crammed so many different offerings into the park that the options feel overwhelming in a good way. Not only are there an exorbitant amount of entertaining performances, they are also extremely diverse. It may seem obvious that the entertainment should encompass different holidays, since this is after all Festival of Holidays, but that’s not easy to authentically pull off.

30+ different live entertainment options performing in the month of December goes a long way to pulling that off. All of those are contracted acts, not associated with Disney. Not that there’s anything wrong with the Disney productions themselves, in fact a few of those are new and quite good.

My favorite of those new Disney run entertainment options is A Musical Christmas with Mariachi Alegría de Disneyland & Miguel! This show runs 5 times each night, right outside of Carthay Circle in DCA’s main entrance plaza. The mariachi band walks down the street while playing a classic Christmas song before embarking on a spirited show that features a song from Coco as well as some well known Christmas songs sung in Spanish and English. The culmination of the show is a heartwarming rendition of Silent Night that gets the kids in the audience involved. Each time I’ve seen this, the audience has been really into it. I hope it’s a mainstay for years to come.

Also new is Mirabel’s Gifts of the Season. This show didn’t work quite as well for me but it was a nice integration of Encanto characters into a seasonal show. Mirabel (plays on weekdays) shares the space with the fantastic Viva Navidad Street Party. All of these are strong offerings!

If you’re looking for something sassier than the heart warming options above, Storytime with Deadpool & Wolverine has carried over into the holiday season. I thought the show was decent and that’s coming from someone who’s not the biggest Deadpool fan. It’s another nice offering to give people who might not like the traditional, cheesier options.

Once outside of the Disney offerings, there are many cultures and holidays celebrated. Paradise Garden Park draws some of the largest crowds and offers some big band and pop music, generally centered around Christmas music. Our personal favorite, Phat Cat Swinger plays there. The one downside about so many bands being around this year is that festival favorites get a few less dates. That’s not the worst trade off though, as I’m always happy to see the parks offering more options than less.

The Backlot Stage has been one of the most pleasant surprises of the festival, offering dance and rhythm groups. This includes groups celebrating Indian, African, Native American, Polynesian, Aztec and other cultures. Each time we’ve strode back to this stage something new was showing and they all have taught us something about different cultures, as well as been very entertaining.

Right next to that stage at the Hollywood Lounge, acts include Jewish, Hawaiian and German bands. Finally, the Sonoma Terrace stage offers soul and Indian acts. Naturally, there are more holidays out there that could be celebrated and I hope Disneyland Resort continues to add to this lineup. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by just how diverse the entertainment is.

Epcot does a wonderful job with festivals and World Showcase is built to showcase different art. But the amount of acts celebrating and teaching about different holidays and cultures at California Adventure’s 2024 Festival of Holidays has set it apart. The job they’ve done to include different acts is in the spirit of that original Epcot idea – to entertain and to educate.

I’m hopeful that this will continue into next year and will be kept in mind for other festivals at DCA and Epcot. Having so many exciting live acts has added to the park experience significantly, to the point where guests could spend an entire day here and just focus on entertainment. That focus has made California Adventure’s Festival of Holidays my favorite of any theme park festival!

What are you favorite items at California Adventure’s Festival of the Holidays? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below. Planning a trip to Disneyland? Check out our Planning Guide here. This site has you covered for Disneyland discount tickets! If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!