EPCOT's 2024 Festival of the Holidays Adds New Festive Experiences to CommuniCore Hall and Plaza

Posted: Friday November 1, 2024 1:20pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

This year's EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays will bring seven new experiences to World Celebration from November 29 through December 30, 2024.

Spotlights over CommuniCore Plaza

With new additions to CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza, Disney has stepped up efforts to make better use of these spaces for the upcoming holiday festival. Here's what's in store to elevate your holiday experience:

1. A Grand and Miraculous Gingerbread Display

CommuniCore Hall will host an 8-foot-tall gingerbread Spaceship Earth created by the EPCOT Pastry Team and Walt Disney Imagineering. With hundreds of carefully crafted gingerbread triangles, the display will light up and play music periodically, thanks to the Celebration Countdown presented by CITIZEN.

2024 EPCOT Festival of the Holidays Spaceship Earth Gingerbread House preview

The sphere itself is made up of almost a thousand handcrafted gingerbread triangles to mirror the iconic attraction. There are 240 pounds of honey dough, 100 eggs, 100 ounces lebkuchen spice, 55 pounds dark chocolate, and 100 pounds royal icing. For a final Disney touch, there are 11 hidden Mickeys to represent the 11 countries of the World Showcase.

2024 EPCOT Festival of the Holidays Spaceship Earth Gingerbread House preview

2. Deck the CommuniCore Hall

The holiday décor extends throughout CommuniCore Hall, including the Glittering Grove by Balsam Hill—a seasonal forest featuring shimmering trees. Guests will also find exclusive festival merchandise inside the hall.

3. Experimental Prototype Cookies of Tomorrow

This new Holiday Kitchen inside CommuniCore Hall serves up decorated cookies, including a gingerbread triangle decorating kit inspired by the Spaceship Earth gingerbread display.

4. Favorites of Festivals Past

Right outside CommuniCore Hall, this Holiday Kitchen celebrates beloved dishes from past festivals. Guests can look forward to a nostalgic taste of their favorite festival bites.

5. Snowflake Decorating in CommuniCore Plaza

Kids and adults alike can get creative with complimentary snowflake decorating in CommuniCore Plaza.

6. JOYFUL! A Celebration of the Season

The spirited JOYFUL! performance has a new home at CommuniCore Plaza.

7. Festive Fragrances by Scentsy

A new "snow globe garden" along the walkway between the Imagination! pavilion and World Showcase will feature Scentsy's holiday scents.

Discuss on the Forums

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ToTBellHop3 hours ago

I noticed that tonight. Great show despite some low clouds!

Squishy5 hours ago

They are however using the Enchantment launch sites for some reason though.

castlecake2.011 hours ago

Wouldn’t these people rather know ahead of time instead of being turned around at the auto plaza?

esskay14 hours ago

whoever decided reservations were still a good idea. There’s a reason first come first serve worked well for decades. But no let’s continue to make the place more effort for guests, especially first timers.

IanDLBZF15 hours ago

Of note, guests using date based tickets are not required to make reservations.

wdwmagic15 hours ago

Christmas 2024 at Walt Disney World: Which Parks Are Still Available for Reservations? https://www.wdwmagic.com/other/mymagicplus/news/24dec2024-christmas-2024-at-walt-disney-world-which-parks-are-still-available-for-reservations.htm

MisterPenguin1 day ago

Single-day-tickets for MK are not available on Christmas Eve nor Christmas Day. Disney would rather have a manageable crowd than anyone's $190.

ToTBellHop1 day ago

Disney actively tries to prevent that. They have to staff more and GSATs plummet anyway. No one wins.

HauntedPirate1 day ago

Many around here have been saying for weeks - "The crowds are coming! The crowds are coming!"

MisterPenguin1 day ago

Who said there are supposed to be hordes of people? The whole purpose of reservations, limited passes, and surge pricing was to discourage the kind of numbers that shut down a gate. And to make money.

spectromagic041 day ago

Big crowds are expected after Christmas until January 4th. This past weekend through Christmas Day was supposed to be moderate busy according to projections.

HauntedPirate1 day ago

*Checks current wait times* *Notes there isn't anything out of the ordinary, with SDD and FoP having 2 and 2.5 hour waits* Where are the hordes of people that were supposed to descend on the parks this week? Maybe they all stayed away once LLPP sold out...