Kingdom Come

Everything leading up to Christmas is hectic and rushed. You spend weeks in preparation for a single day-shopping, cleaning, wrapping, mailing, light-putting-upping. Christmas Eve gets here, you have dinner with the fam, grin and bear it when your aunties tag-team on asking why you aren't married yet, and stuff your face with some honey-glazed ham. And then Christmas day arrives, you spend a hour or so unwrapping gifts, and then what do you do? Yeah, you're supposed to, like, spend time with your family and stuff, but sitting around the house gets boring after a while. Disneyland may just be one of the few places open 365 days a year. And though you probably can't stand all that mind-numbing cheerfulness the other 364 days of the year, there's something about the cute holiday décor paired with the jingly music playing over the PA and the size of the smile on your kid's face at the park that renders it somehow okay for the day. Holiday festivities include the Christmas Fantasy parade, crafts, teenagers dressed as your favorite Disney characters decked out in Christmas attire, the Haunted Mansion transformed à la Jack Skellington and, everyone's favorite, the fireworks followed by fake snowfall, Southern California-style. Still not convinced? Fine. Just try to remember how happy Disneyland made you when you were your kid's age. Now shut up and try to keep your complaints to a minimum while standing in the Matterhorn line for two hours.
Dec. 18-31, 2007