Merry Christmas

Christmas Movies for Kids Part 3

I love many of the kids Christmas movies that have appeared in recent years. I especially enjoy those from DreamWorks Animation. They have created several short Christmas films that feature characters from their popular series.

How to Train Your Dragon: Gift of the Night Fury - This is a wonderful tale about Hiccup and his Viking pals and their dragons. As the Vikings prepare to celebrate Snoggletog, the dragons suddenly leave, dampening everyone's spirits. Even Toothless leaves once Hiccup provides him with a new tail. As Hiccup's pals work together to save Snoggletog, Hiccup tries to discover what has happened to the dragons. In the end, everyone comes together to celebrate the true meaning of the season: the love of family.

Shrek The Halls - With Christmas rapidly approaching, Princess Fiona and the babies are looking forward to spending the holidays as a family. Unfortunately, Shrek knows nothing about Christmas. As he struggles to create the perfect Christmas from the book "Christmas for Village Idiots", his friends manage to destroy everything. With a little help from Fiona, Shrek learns the meaning of family, and finally discovers the perfect Christmas.

Kung Fu Panda Holiday - Po has always celebrated the Winter Feast with his father, but this year, he's expected to host a formal dinner for the Kung Fu Masters. With the help of the Furious Five, Po tries to create the best Winter Feast ever. Along the way, he tries to discover the true meaning of the holidays; time spent with family and those he loves.

Merry Madagascar - When Alex and his zoo pals shoot down Santa, whom they had mistaken for the "red night goblin" the lemurs fear, they worry that they've ruined Christmas. Working quickly, Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman, and those wacky penguin come up with a plan to save the day: they'll deliver the presents while Santa recovers from his amnesia. With some madcap hijinks and more than a few mistake, the animals manage to save Christmas, but are forced to return to Madagascar to bring Santa his sleigh. In the end, they discover that giving makes it all worth while, and they are happy to celebrate the holiday.

Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas Special - While Manny and Ellie get ready for their first Christmas with their daughter Peaches, Sid does what he always does, and ruins everything by breaking Manny 's heirloom Christmas rock. Manny informs Sid that he has just made Santa's naughty list, even though he made it up. So, Peaches, Sid, Crash, and Eddie journey to the North Pole to set things right, with hilarious results!

Christmas Movies

It's that time of year again: time to dig out the Christmas movies and have a movie marathon. If you are looking for movies to watch, be sure to check out a few of my favorite Christmas movies. I must admit that I am terribly fond of Christmas movies, so my list of favorites is quite long. If you'd like to know more about a particular film, just click on the link.

Kids Christmas Movies:
     Eloise at Christmastime
     Eloise Little Miss Christmas
     Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas
     Mickey 's Once Upon a Christmas
     Mickey 's Twice Upon a Christmas
     How the Grinch Stole Christmas
     Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas
     The Original Television Christmas Classics - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,  
           Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Little Drummer Boy, and
           the Cricket on the Hearth
     The Happy Elf
     Beauty and the Beast: Enchanted Christmas
     Yes, Virginia
     The Santa Clause Trilogy
     The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
     Santa and Pete
     The Polar Express
     Muppet Christmas Carol
     Arthur Christmas

Adult Movies:
     White Christmas
     Miracle on 34th Street
     The Man Who Saved Christmas
     Silent Night
     The Holiday
     A Christmas Carol - my favorite stars Patrick Stewart
     A Christmas Carol: The Musical
     Scrooge

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Fire

Disney

Normally, I don't pay too much attention to the sensational news out of Disney World. However, last night I was there, so I know it's true. Apparently, a firework from Wishes landed on the exterior of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride and set it on fire. The fire was quickly extinguished, but the ride was closed for nearly two hours.  It reopened shortly after midnight, which was when my family and I rode for the first time. It was well worth the wait; we loved it! The fire doesn't seem to have done any major damage, but I suspect there will be some changes for fireworks on windy nights.

El Dia de los Muertos at EPCOT

Have you ever been at EPCOT on November 1st or 2nd? These two days are part of a Mexican celebration called El Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. As mentioned at EPCOT, "The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember relatives who have died." While the Mexico Pavilion doesn't have any special events to mark this holiday, they do have a lot of fun merchandise to decorate your home with. Here are a few of my favorites.

Painted skulls, t-shirts, books and much more.

I love these large, skull-shaped pillows. 

They have fantastic floral embroidery reminiscent of sugar skulls.

These square pillow cases are also cool. I especially like the ball fringe.

Can you imagine wearing skulls on your shoes? Well you can with these ShWings. Bean has some that are actual pink wings and she loves them. They are very easy to put on shoe laces and can definitely add a bit of fun to some boring shoes.

Halloween at Coronado Springs

My family and I are back at Disney World again. We are staying at Coronado Springs this time, and so far I really like it. It is amazing how much different (and better) the moderate hotels are compared to the value ones. Anyway, Coronado Springs has a bunch of special events planned for Halloween.

There is trick or treating throughout the lobby and restaurants.

 

Pluto and Donald are stopping by in their best outfits for pictures.

The cast members had a pumpkin carving competition where guests could vote for their favorites. I personally like the Baymax pumpkin, but Bean was partial to the Rapunzel tower.

There have been Disney Halloween movies under the stars all week. Tonight's film is Hocus Pocus, but they've played the Haunted Mansion, and other similar movies as well. A dance party on the patio is also on the events list for this afternoon. And the coloring pages in the lobby have all been replaced with Halloween designs. Even the restaurants are decorated with carved pumpkins.

 These Frozen pumpkins are especially cute.

They seem to really enjoy Halloween at Coronado Springs. It looks like it will be a lot of fun.

Bat Day at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Have you ever spent Halloween in the parks at Walt Disney World? Surprisingly, it can be a great way to spend the spooky holiday. While I'm sure most people would be inclined to head to the Magic Kingdom and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, there is a much less expensive alternative to be found in Disney's Animal Kingdom: Bat Day.

At the Conservation Station, Halloween is Bat Day. Last year, they had at least half a dozen activities aimed at teaching kids more about bats. (And don't worry, adults can participate, too.) Our first activity was making bay masks. There were five different mask printouts to color and cut out. They also had a lifesize silhouette of a bat with its wings extended. Kids could kneal in front of it and hold out their arms to see how they measure up to the wingspan. Another station involved walking into a "cave" filled with paper bats. You had to use a flashlight to count the different species and report back how many you found of each. Next, we learned about several forms of enrichment used by cast members to keep the bats entertained. We even tried to lift a bucket of candy using only our pinkies to pull up each link of a chain. That was a lot more difficult than you'd think. We also talked with the bat keepers about how to help bats flourish at home, from reducing the use of pesticides to building bat homes. They also gave us magnets, temporary tattoos, and stickers with photos and facts about bats. It was a lot of fun and a great learning experience.

For a little more animal fun, on October 31, all of the animals receive pumpkins as part of their enrichment program. We enjoyed watching the tortoises trying to eat the giant pumpkins.