Y es, you read that right. Disneyland wants you and 3 guests to join me on November 21 along with some other great bloggers and experience Disneyland at Christmas – if you have never experienced Disneyland at Christmas, then you have no idea what you are missing:
- The sights – decorations like you wouldn’t believe – and more lights that you can possibly count, and a fireworks show that touches your heart.
- The sounds – Christmas music playing, carolers Car-oling, and even the horses that trot down main street USA have pretty bells around their necks.
- The smells – yes, the smells – the tantalizing smell of peppermint from the candy store, the warm comforting aroma of spiced hot cider and hot chocolate.
- The tastes – ever had a freshly made candy cane? There is nothing like it…you can also enjoy gingerbread and sugar cookies in addition to all the treats ordinarily found in the park.
All you have to do is tell me your favorite Disney Memory in the comments below – it could be from the Disney parks, seeing a favorite Disney movie, watching a favorite Disney show with your kids (anyone remember Wonderful World of Disney that used to come on Sunday nights?), or even your wish to see Disneyland at Christmas.
The Rules:
This giveaway is for the VIP Disneyland experience only – winners do NOT need to live in Southern California, but the winner must provide their own transportation and lodging if they live outside the area. The winner and three guests will attend the Christmas party on NOVEMBER 21, 2009 and visit the park as part of the event. Please ask any questions before entering by emailing me at domesticchicky (at) gmail (dot) com
This giveaway will remain open until Friday October 16th at 9pm PST. Winner will be drawn at random. Winner must be able to attend – prize will not be transferred or sold. Good luck and Merry Christmas!
Random.org chose the following number- 3
That mean Krista is the winner – congratulations! I will be contacting you in the next 24 hours to give you all the details. Thank you for all of your entries, I really enjoyed reading them all-I wish I could take everyone
My favorite Disney memory is Thanksgiving 1995. My parents and I had not been getting along too well due to my 15 year old teenage angst, and I’m pretty sure they were at their wits end as to what to do. They heard on the radio that Thanksgiving day at Disneyland wasn’t very crowded so they decided we would take family trip! I was excited (but I didn’t show them that)!
When we got there, the magical world of Disney took over and I had the most fun I’ve ever had at Disneyland. My parents were like kids again and we bonded closely as a family. I will never forget our yummy “Thanksgiving Feast” at the Blue Bayou. We got to watch people ride Pirates of the Carribean which is my FAVORITE ride!!
Disneyland brought us together that day. I will never forget it!
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..Our Baby <3 =-.
My favorite Disney memory is going to Disney World for my honeymoon. My husband and I lived near Disney before we were married, so we share a great love for all things Disney. Our honeymoon was amazing!!
.-= Angie Kerr´s last blog ..Lessons Learned =-.
It’s hard to put my finger on 1 favorite Disney memory, there are so many great Disney memories! The Disney memory that comes to mind is being on Pirates with my daughter & some of her friends when they were about 11 or so. In the boat with us were the members of some band that was playing that night at House of Blues and the minute we left the dock they started singing, “Yo ho yo ho a pirates life for me” … they knew all the words & we sang the whole way… and they ROCKEd the boat!!
Oh goodness, I would love to win this for the kids. My favorite Disney memory… It’s an odd one. I was (am?) a band geek. We once performed at Disney World in Orlando. We marched the whole parade route, as well as going through the mysterious backlot at Disney. I may or may NOT have had to sign a disclaimer about what I saw back there. That was really really fun.
.-= Michele´s last blog ..Please help me understand =-.
Disneyland has been a HUGE part of my life! My family was able to go to Disneyland for free the month that I got out of the hospital from battling Leukemia. A group for children with cancer that we belonged to, paid for my family and I to attend every year for free until I turned 18 years old. Now that I have my own children, we try to take them for family vacation time. We have never been able to attend during Christmas time and it has always been a dream. My oldest daughter turns 8 this year, and we would absolutely LOVE to take her to Disneyland for her birthday! There could be nothing better than our favorite place at our favorite time of the year. My kids would LOVE it!!! Thanks for the opportunity! 😉
.-= Jamie Hutchings´s last blog ..One Year Birthday Shoot =-.
Having grown up so close to Disneyland, I have so many great memories. Most of them are with family – girls weekend at disneyland, dates to disneyland, high school graduation at disneyland. So many. I think one of my favorite memories was while I was dating my husband. We both had season passes and I was dying to go to Disneyland before Christmas because I wanted to see it snow on main street! We went together on a special date and it was so fun! At the end of the night found we found a small spot on a bench and snuggled as we watched the fireworks and listed to the Christmas music play. Finally it began to snow. I was so happy. It was so romantic. That night Disneyland made us feel like we were at the happiest place on earth! It would be amazing to go to Disneyland again with my husband for the Christmas festivities!
My best Disney Memory – My family was getting ready to move to Oregon after the craziness left behind by the Northridge earthquake. The last few weeks we were in California we went to all the parks we could saving Disney for last. It was a rainy day but we forged on and the 6 of us had the most awesome time riding all the rides and taking character pictures because the crowd was smaller than normal. My Grandmother, a Disney -a- holic had the best time. I still look back at the pictures and remember her smile and how small she looked in her yellow Mickey Mouse poncho.
How fun! Too many memories to choose from… But, my dad treated all us grown kids, spouses, boyfriends, to a day at the park for my 23rd bday. So fun! On Memorial Day — how crazy is that?
.-= FishMama´s last blog ..Petit Dejeuner, Anyone? =-.
When I was younger I did not fit in and kids teased me and made fun of my thrift store clothes. One day my day took me to see AN AMERICAN TALE and it is my first movie memory and what made me realize, through the magic of Disney, that even I was special and one day it would all be ok. I’ve loved Disney ever since.
.-= Harvard Housewife´s last blog ..Top Five Housewife Muumuu Dresses =-.
I have always loved Disney. In 1996, I went to Disneyland with my then boyfriend. We met on a little thing called AOL and had been flying between Texas and California for months. We were both pretty smitten.
I had only been to Disney World. We drove down Harbor Blvd and when I saw the old Disneyland sign, I was in love. I drug him into the park that night and to breakfast with Goofy the next morning. We had a great time and by the end of the trip, he was in love, with me.
We married 18 months later. My husband had such great memories of the trip that he had a Mickey Mouse groom’s cake. We didn’t even have a cake topper…just a Mickey and Minnie wedding snowglobe.
Today, we have an 11 and an 8 year old. They love Disney as much as us. I guess it really all it start with a mouse.
My favorite memory was when I was able to take my two kids to Disneyland for the first time and share the magic with them. The look on my kids faces when the parade started was magic. Seeing my two year old son stare at the dinosaurs on the train ride wondering if they were real or not. My daughter’s eye’s lit up when she saw Arial, and the giggles we all got when she gave my son a kiss on his cheek and left a lipstick mark. Those two are now 11 and 9 and there are 3 more kids that I can’t wait to share the magic with.
My favorite Disney memory was in 1983 — my 2 best friends from college and I flew to LA from the east coast on $99 roundtrip airfare (unbelievable, right?) — anyway, we of course had to go to Disneyland while we were here in town and so we did. However, on the day we chose to go, there was a freak storm, lots of rain, very windy, and only diehard fans basically attended the park that day. We practically had the place to ourselves. It was fantastic! We didn’t care how cold or rainy it was because we didn’t have to wait in lines for any rides! Looking back on it now, I’m surprised they kept the park open at all, but I’m sure glad they did!!
.-= Sarah Auerswald´s last blog ..Help Design The Mar Vista Of The Future =-.
I would love to create some Disneyland memories with my kids! The Holidays are always magical but add Disneyland to the mix and I can’t imagine anything more exciting! I do remember watching The Wonderful World of Disney well before DVD players or even VHS. We’d gather our blankets and pillows and eat popcorn while enjoying a great movie with our whole family.
.-= Brittany ´s last blog ..WE FOUND NEMO! =-.
I’ve never been to Disneyland, but I hear it is a wonderful place. We hope one day to be able to take my daughter.
I think something that I love about Disney is how my daughter can fall in love with the same timeless tales that I watched as a child, and it bring about the same magic in her eyes and heart as it did in mine.
.-= Christina Helton´s last blog ..Food – Yummy! How to Make Bacon Cups by Not Martha =-.
My grandparents lived near Disneyland when I was little and my brother and I would usually get to go to that very special place each summer with them. I was about five at the time, a very tall five year old (think 8 year old height). My older brother and dad went on Thunder Railroad and came back telling me how much fun it was. 🙂
I was intrigued (my 5 year old self) and asked my grandpa to go with me. I really don’t think that ride is meant for 5 year olds. 😉 I got so scared that I peed my pants (not a ton, but enough) and started crying and instead of anyone around me laughing, this is the chain of events that followed:
Grandpa and I stepped out of the roller coaster and my grandpa got a drink (not sure if it was his or someone else’s, but it was right away) and he poured it on himself. Not to look like he peed, but to look like he spilled on himself and me. He asked me if I wanted to go home to change and I said I was ok. My brother, who was notorious for making fun of me and teasing me, did not say a word. The two of us, my grandpa and I, walked around the park with our wet pants and enjoyed the rest of the day together.
This is such a great memory because I know that if it would have happened anywhere else I would been made fun of or stared at, but we were at Disneyland and not one person made a comment. Believe me, I remember cranky, rude people’s comments and I don’t remember one.
It was just a magical day and I can’t wait to make a magical day for my own children and my husband (who still has not been to Disneyland). Hopefully I won’t have to pour a drink on my pants to do it, but I would do it if I needed to. I love the feeling you have the night before you know you are going, unable to sleep or concentrate on anything except what you think it will be like, the feeling you get when you enter those gates and finally the most amazing feeling you get when you see that favorite character give you all the attention for that special moment. It’s what I want for my girls and my hubby. 🙂
I have never taken my family to Disneyland, but have always wanted to. My girls would absolutely love it! Especially my oldest, she truly believes she is a princess, and I have to agree with her.
When I was a little girl my family used to have Disney Movie night once a week. We’d pop popcorn, snuggle up together, and enjoy one of our favorite Disney movies. I ALWAYS voted for Peter Pan. I had such a crush on Peter. LoL. I used to pretend I was Wendy, I’d practice my “Flying” by leaping off the stairs. (To this day I still swear I took flight one or two times) It broke my heart when I finally realized that Peter and I could never have a future together because he was a two demensional fictional character.
Don’t feel too bad for me though, my heart mended eventually and I grew up to marry my own personal Prince Charming …who just happens to have a Peter Pan complex. 🙂
Now that you jogged my memory, I have to admit that I have very fond memories of the Wonderful World of Disney. I remember the whole family watching it around supper time. It was one of the few programs we all actually watched together. Just thinking about it now makes me nostalgic. Ah.
It was our first family trip that I remember, I was 9 years old and we all piled in our van and had a roadtrip. I was the middle child and only boy with two older sisters and two younger sisters. The road trip was full of “our we there yet” and a lot of teasing (mostly by me). 14 hours in a car can make you crazy. But when we got to the park it was all fun. My mom had scheduled the best times to be at all the rides and we followed her schedule to a tee. It was probably my fondest memory as a child. I can’t wait to take my children there 24 years later.
Four years ago, my parents, brother and I all went to Disneyland for one last family vacation as just the four of us, since I am married (my husband was in Iraq at the time) and my brother had a steady girlfriend (who he’s now married to). Both my brother and I had been there on separate occasions, but our parents had never been. Growing up we always vacationed in a camper, every spring and summer. I would have to say that Disneyland was one of the funnest family trips we had ever been on since it was pretty much the first family trip we went on as adult kids and the first family trip we took a plane to. My parents had not flown for 20 years, that was an experience all in itself. It was only four days, but it was a lot of fun!
.-= Ruhama Lange´s last blog ..Ten Tiny Toes… =-.
Oh, I love Disneyland! Living in San Diego we try to get there as much as possible. My favorite memory was from 1999. We were there celebrating my birthday and had just our one daughter at the time. My best friend and her family joined us along with my parents.
The memory is when it was time for the big parade of the day to start and we were trying to find a spot to sit. There just happened to be a cast member standing by and my friend asked “Where is the best place to see the parade?” He kinda teased us a bit while saying “do you really want to know?” After saying yes a couple times he said “the best place to see the parade is in the parade…would you like to be in the parade today?” Well, that was what we did….our hubbies and kids sat on the sides to watch (the cast memeber found them a gredt spot) and we were loaded onto a double decker bus and taken “back stage” where we put on a little tutu (over our clothes) and was taught a little dance (very quickly) and she and I along with a couple other cast memebers carried the rope at the end of the parade. It was soooo much fun!! Amazing to see all of the smiling faces of kids and grown ups alike! We even got a special pin for participating in it! So much fun!!
.-= Pattie Ochoa´s last blog ..Call of the Ocean =-.
My favorite Disney memory is going to Disneyland with my then fiance. It was POURING rain, but we had a blast anyways. Soggy shoes, socks and clothes. We made the most of it and rode all the rides without having to wait in line. He was such a trooper because even in wet, damp clothes we stayed for the parade and fireworks. Would love to take him and our daughter to the “Happiest Place on Earth” for the holidays!
Congratulations Krista! I hope you have a fabulous time in Disneyland! Maybe I’ll win one of the other contests so I can see you there too.
.-= Brittany´s last blog ..Disneyland Giveaway!!! =-.
WOO HOO!! Thanks Deanna! We’re gonna have so much fun!
awww man I missed it,,,,,,,,,that would of been a great BIRTHDAY present for meeeeee!!! 🙂
My greatest memory of DISNEYLAND Rick proposing to me June 24 1983 he took me to the wishing well outside Cinderella’s castle the one with snow white and the seven dwarfs. He waited until the song Jimminy Cricket sings played and told me to listen. It was the song “when you wish upon a star” then he asked “what’s my wish” I said “to be married and have a family” because he was 15 years older he than asked me that as he got older if it would bother me. I told him “no as long as the inside of the man didn’t change I didn’t care how old the outside man looked” he than asked me to marry him :), it’s been 26 1/2 years 🙂