A Guide to Epcot’s Festival of the Holidays

Headed to Walt Disney World this Christmas season? One of my top suggestions to add to your itinerary is to plan an Epcot day (or two…but more on that below) so that you can experience EPCOT’s Festival of the Holidays during your trip.

If you’re new to Walt Disney World or don’t know much about EPCOT’s festivals, I’m happy to tell ya all about it! 😀

What is the Festival of the Holidays?

EPCOT is a really fascinating park! Even though it’s just one park, it’s made up of two different sections or lands. As you come in from the main entrance, you’ll see the giant “golf ball”. That’s the Space Ship Earth attraction which is located in Future World.

All of EPCOT’s festivals, however, take place in the World Showcase. Here you’ll find eleven different International Pavilions situated around a large lagoon.

For the Festival of the Holidays, Disney pays tribute to the many different winter holidays celebrated around the world. As you visit each pavilion, you’ll be immersed in each country’s culture with holiday decorations, food offerings, and entertainment.

Even though a visit to Walt Disney in 2020 is very different, there’s still a lot of amazing things to experience, especially during the Festival of the Holidays.

This year’s event includes:

• Twenty different Holiday Kitchens and food booths
• Holiday Cookie Stroll
• The World Showplace
• Gingerbread Capital City
• Festive Entertainment
• Holiday Character Cavalcades
• Olaf’s Holiday Tradition Expedition Scavenger Hunt
• Holiday Decorations
• And a few more extras!

Another few things to note…

There is no separate ticket or admission needed for this event. The festival’s events are included with your regular admission. Food, beverages, and merchandise are, of course, an additional charge.

The festival runs from November 27th through December 31st.

Holiday Kitchens

As you make your way around to explore the international pavilions, you’ll see many outdoor Holiday Kitchens. There are 20 to be exact, and they offer a sampling of the traditional holiday food and drink that you would find in that specific country.

Most of the food options are served as a “small plate” and average from $5-10 dollars.

Here’s a quick list of 2020’s Holiday Kitchens:

1. Refreshment Port – Showcase Plaza
2. Citrus Blossom – Showcase Plaza
3. Mele Kalikimaka Holiday Kitchen – Showcase Plaza
4. Holiday Sweets & Treats – Promenade Refreshments 
5. Refreshment Outpost
6. Bavaria Holiday Kitchen – Germany
7. American Holiday Table
8. L’Chaim! Holiday Kitchen – Between Morocco & France
9. Festival Favorites – World Showplace
10. Holiday Hearth – World Showplace
11. Prost! – World Showplace
12. Yukon Holiday Kitchen – Canada
13. Le Marché de Noël Holiday Kitchen – France
14. Sapphire Holiday Kitchen – Morocco
15. Tuscany Holiday Kitchen – Italy
16. Shanghai Holiday Kitchen – China
17. Shi Wasu Holiday Kitchen – Japan  
18. Las Posadas Holiday Kitchen – Mexico  
19. Funnel Cake – The American Adventure
20. Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company^®– All Locations are also serving holiday specialty items such as a Carmel Tinsle Latte and donut!

You can checkout the detailed menus here at Disney Park’s Blog.

The Holiday Hearth Kitchen is a new addition to the festival this year. You can find it in the World Showplace building.

We tried out the Charcuterie Cheese Plate and the Gingerblonde House Ale.

Everything on the charcuterie was so tasty and I loved the subtle gingerbread flavor of the beer. I think I found a new holiday favorite!!

Holiday Cookie Stroll

Another delicious and budget-friendly option is EPCOT’S Holiday Cookie Stroll.

On your way in, make sure to pick up a Park Guide and a Festival Passport. Inside the passport, you’ll find a handy little guide that lists all of the Holiday Cookie Stroll locations.

As you make your way around each stop, you’ll purchase your cookies and get a stamp on the designated spot on your passport. Once you’ve collected all five stamps, you can receive a complimentary cookie!

You can pick up the complimentary cookie at the Sweets & Treats Holiday Kitchen. This year’s complimentary cookie is an adorable Minnie Peppermint Cookie!!

The price of each cookie $2.50. So far a total of $12.50, you’ll get six freshly baked cookies from EPCOT’S bakeries. These are big enough to share between two people, and my kids loved the adventure of finding each pavilion and getting their passport stamped for each cookie.

Festival of the Holidays Cookies

Here’s a quick guide on where to find them:

1. Linzer Cookie – Bavaria Holiday Kitchen, Germany
2. Chocolate Crinkle Cookie – American Holiday Table, American Pavilion
3. Black and White Cookie – L’Chaim Holiday Kitchen, Between Morocco and France
4. Gingerbread Cookie – Festival Favorites, World Showplace
5. Peppermint Pinwheel Cookie – Yukon Holiday Kitchen, Canada

Another neat thing about the Holiday Cookie Stroll is that you don’t have to finish it all on the same day. You can bring your passport back and complete it when it works for you. After all, you can only eat and drink so much in a single day and this might give you an excuse to visit the festival again!

World Showplace

The World Showplace is a pavilion that you won’t want to miss! This location is situated between the Canadian and United Kingdom Pavilions. The building sits back a bit but look out for this sign as you’re headed for the UK Pavilion.

Inside you’ll find several of the Holiday Kitchens, fun photo ops, holiday shopping, entertainment, plus plenty of high top tables to use as you’re enjoying your festival treats.

Festival of the Holidays Photo Ops

As soon as you enter, you’ll see some amazing holiday displays and photo ops. There are a few more located around the building. We were so glad to see that Chip and Dale are still the stars of the show here!! Make sure to get your photos in front of these displays.

There are also a couple of entertainment options here as well. You can find the singing group JOYFUL!, who sings a variety of gospel, R&B, and contemporary holiday favorites.

We also saw a piano accompanist towards the back of the building. There were bigger tables with chairs over there, too! This would be a perfect spot to grab a seat and enjoy your holiday treats all while listening to some amazing entertainment.

Gingerbread Capitol City

Before you head out of the World Showplace building, you’re going to want to stop over and check out the Gingerbread Capitol City. This is a special treat to see!

EPCOT’S pastry chefs have created a gingerbread replica of our nation’s capitol with some of the most iconic buildings such as the United States Capitol Building, Washington Monument, and the Martin Luther King Memorial.

Festive Entertainment

There’s loads of holiday entertainment to found around the World Showcase for the Festival of the holidays.

Be sure to check the Times Guide under the Entertainment section on the My Disney Experience app.

Musical Entertainment:

JOYFUL! – this is a high-energy group of performers who sing R&B, soul, contemporary, and gospel-inspired Christmas and holiday songs. They are located in the World Showcase building.

Voices of Liberty – found at the American Gardens theatre, you’ll get to enjoy their harmonious carols being sung.

Mariachi Cobre – bring to life with both songs and dance, the Las Posadas journey. Mariachi Cobre performs at the American Gardens Theatre.

JAMMitors – a percussion band that is really fun to watch. You can’t help but dance! They actually play on metal stove ovens, pots, pans, and other props.

Holiday Character Cavalcades

While on your festive jaunts, you’ll also have the opportunity to see characters making their way around the World Showcase.

There are three holiday Character Cavalcades to keep a lookout for:

• Mickey and Friends World Tour – Goofy, Pluto, Mickey and Minnie
• Princess Promenade – featuring Elsa & Anna
• Santa Claus Promenade – Featuring Santa in a horse drawn carriage

To get the best view of the cavalcades, I recommend traveling around the festival in a counterclockwise direction. The cavalcades start right before the China Pavilion and end somewhere before Canada. By touring in the opposite direction, you’ll have the opportunity to see the characters coming straight towards you.

These are hard to plan for as they happen at random. But, you can see what cavalcades are available and the time frames they will be running, on the My Disney Experience app, however, specific times are not listed.

If you want to ensure that you catch these, I’d spend as much time outside along the main pathways as possible. These do run several different times throughout the day, so if you miss them, they will most likely make their way around again later in the day.

Olaf’s Holiday Tradition Expedition

Another great addition is Olaf’s Holiday Tradition Expedition. This is a scavenger hunt activity for kids of all ages. EPCOT offers a scavenger hunt activity during all of its festivals.

This year Olaf is on a hunt to learn about holiday traditions and he’s hidden in each of the pavilions. As you begin your trek around the World Showcase, stop into Disney Traders, Mouse Gear, or World Traveler merchandise locations and grab a map and a set of stickers for about eight bucks. (Available for Passholder discount.)

As you explore each of the international pavilions, keep your eye out for Olaf! When you find him, place a coordinating sticker on the map. Once you complete the hunt, you can return to any of the three merchandise locations listed above. The Cast Members there will stamp your map and let you pick out a PRIZE!

This year’s prize is a choice out of three Olaf cups.

My two kids adored this!!! And I love that they were entertained, while the hubby and I were able to enjoy our festival eats and drinks without hardly any interruption! Be sure to check out my post to check out just how well we faired, plus a few more tips and tricks {Here}!

Holiday Merchandise and Shopping

Throughout the international pavilions and in the World Showplace building, you’ll find a lot of cute holiday pop-up shops. You’ll be able to find awesome holiday merchandise, some of which are festival and Passholder exclusives.

A popular item that sold out quickly last year, but is available again is the Holiday Cookie Stroll cookie jar. How adorable is this?

If you want to store your cookies from the Holiday Cookie Stroll in here, I’d bring along a few ziplock baggies with you. That way you can put each cookie into its own baggie. This will keep all of the cookies fresh and separate from one another. You don’t want the icing from the black and white cookie mixing with the Peppermint Pinwheel…ya feel me?! 😂

Holiday Decorations

Each of the pavilions is decked out for the holidays. You’ll spy swags of greenery, twinkle lights, brightly colored bulb ornaments, and so much more. The details are everything here!

Every pavilion has its own unique style of decorations to reflect the culture and traditions of that county. They are absolutely breathtaking!

Like the other three Disney parks, EPCOT also has it’s very own Christmas tree. It’s massive and just gorgeous! It’s decorated with ornaments that represent the different destinations around the world. The tree topper is an angel holding onto the world.

This is beautiful to see during the day….

Oh, but at night…just look how AMAZING!!

Holiday Overlays

Even though these aren’t exactly part of the Festival of the holidays, there are two EPCOT attractions that get a special holiday overlay for the Christmas season.

Living with the Land is an attraction located in the Land Pavilion. It gets an overlay called Merry and Bright Nights. The greenhouse sections of the greenhouses get decked out with lots of bright lights and holiday decorations, and fun extras. The best time to ride is once the sun goes down to get the full effect of the lights.

We took a tour both during the day and at night. You can learn about all the things and you can see and experience {Here}!

You might want to also check out the Journey into Imagination attraction featuring Figment the dragon. He got a festive makeover for the holidays with an adorable sweater.

All of you Figment fans are definitely going to want to see this!

More Tips & Tricks

Here are my thoughts and best advice for how to plan your EPCOT days this holiday season.

There’s A LOT to see, eat, and experience during the Festival of the Holidays. Just for a reference, I spent three days checking out all the festival offerings, and I still wasn’t able to do it all.

If your main priority is spending time at the festival, I’d make sure to schedule one full day for this. The Holiday Kitchen lines can get long, and the festival draws large crowds. If seeing all of the entertainment, cavalcades, and trying out all of the eats are must-do’s, then definitely plan for one full day at the Festival of the Holidays.

Now, if you’re just wanting to pop over and try out a treat or two, then I’d probably work that around the two ride attractions that are in the World Showcase; Frozen Ever After and the Gran Fiesta Tour. By planning this way, you’ll be able to hit these two attractions, plus grab a couple of treats to get a little taste of the festival and at least say that you were there.

And…if your goal is to experience the festival to the fullest and ride all of EPCOT’s attractions, then you’re probably going to want to spend two days in EPCOT. One day doing all of the ride and show attractions, and then the second day for the festival. OR you could think about cutting your Animal Kingdom day in half as there are fewer holiday happenings over there. Then spend that second half of your day at EPCOT.

Make a Plan & Budget

My next suggestion is to make sure that you make a plan and a budget for what you’re wanting to eat and do while you’re at the festival.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s absolutely impossible to eat and drink all the things. You just can’t do it! There are just too many options available. (Which is a good thing!) So, make sure to preview the menus and make a rough list of your must-have treats. By doing this, you’ll feel prepared, otherwise, it’s easy to be overwhelmed with it all.

Lastly, don’t forget to make a budget! Disney’s Dining Plans are not available yet since the reopening. With all the amazing food, drink, and merchandise available…overspending is something that you could easily do!

Let Us Know Your Experience

We hope this guide will be super helpful as you plan your trip to EPCOT during the Festival of the Holidays. We just love this festival and can’t wait for you to experience it for yourself.

Please reach out to me if you have any other questions. You can leave them down in the comments as they help out our other readers as well, or feel free to reach out to me on any of my social media channels.

If you’d like to come along with us on our Disney trips, make sure to follow me over on INSTAGRAM. We’re in the parks each week and we’d love to take you along.

You can also check out our other holiday guides here:

How to Celebrate Christmas at the Magic Kingdom in 2020 (Free Checklist Included)

Your Complete 2020 Guide to the Holidays at Disney’s Animal Kingdom