New Orleans Square Christmas Decorations - Photos

[TP2000]

Disneyland's New Orleans Square is always charming and always intricately detailed in every nook and cranny. But at Christmas they really go all out and layer on some of the most elaborate decorations to be found in the park. The decorations change a bit from year to year, but they are generally in the same luxury genre and lavish scale.

It may be Christmas, but there are still pirates to be found in New Orleans! Or in this case, a pirate band singing sea shanties with a holiday twist.

The balconies above the alleys of New Orleans Square get lots of attention from the decorating crews.

And the most famous balcony of them all, the balcony outside of the private Disney family apartment with Walt and Roy's gold initials placed into the wrought iron railings. New Orleans Square was opened by Walt in July, 1966, about five months before he passed away. This balcony is now part of the Disneyland Dream Suite.

 

[TP2000]

The Court of Angels is tucked away in the back of New Orleans Square, and they always do a nice big Christmas tree back there. The curving stairwell is a popular spot for pictures year round, and last year Tiana and Prince Naveen moved in there for the summer. But at Christmas it becomes even more popular for picture taking.

Outside the New Orleans Crystal Shoppe, they have some of the elusive blue poinsettias! I love those, and wish I could find some for my house.

 

[TP2000]

Can't get a reservation at the Blue Bayou for your Monte Cristo sandwich fix? Cafe Orleans next door also serves them with pleasant waitress service on their patio, but without the long waits at the Blue Bayou.

Above Cafe Orleans is the dining room for Club 33.

 

[TP2000]

And that brings us to lampposts, doesn't it?

In New Orleans Square they do special lamppost decorations each year for Christmas. This year they are themed to theatrical masks, and there are a couple dozen different ones on every lamppost throughout New Orleans Square.

I won't try and capture every single one of them, but here's a selection of some of my favorite lamppost holiday decorations this year.

 

[TP2000]

On the outskirts of New Orleans Square sits Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion, home to Haunted Mansion Holiday this time of year. As you walk away from the "town" and alleys of New Orleans Square, the Christmas decorations stop being so shiny and bright and turn much darker.

The French Market restaurant across from the Mansion signals this change in tone with their dark garlands and spooky, scragglier decor with a few Jack Skellington heads as accents.

And then we come up on the Mansion, where Jack Skellington has landed his coffin sleigh on the roof and taken over for the season.

This popular holiday attraction has been photographed to death, pardon the pun , but the Disneyland decorators really do a simply amazing job at the lavish detail inside and out of this ride. Here's a look at some of the smaller details from around the Mansion grounds.

 

[Disneybird]

What great pictures. Our only trip to Disneyland was New Years 2009. I loved the look of New Orleans Square.

 

[TP2000]

What great pictures. Our only trip to Disneyland was New Years 2009. I loved the look of New Orleans Square.

Thank you! It's amazing how pictures turn out now when a regular guy with a basic camera wanders around Disneyland, isn't it? It seems like just yesterday we were using Kodak Instamatics and taking our film cartridges to Fotomat to pay a bundle and wait a week for a small batch of grainy, blurry images. :lol:

New Orleans Square is really a jewel in Disneyland's crown. And at the holidays that little corner of the park really sparkles. The Disneyland decorating crews do an amazing job with the decorations all over, but their hard work really shines through in New Orleans Square.

Merry Christmas to one and all, from New Orleans Square!

 

[sponono88]

Loving these pictures, TP! Thank you for sharing - love NOS, looks especially beautiful when it's dressed up for the Holidays. I love the new masquerade decorations they added this year.

:xmas:

 

[TP2000]

Loving these pictures, TP! Thank you for sharing - love NOS, looks especially beautiful when it's dressed up for the Holidays. I love the new masquerade decorations they added this year.

:xmas:

Yeah, those new lamp post decs are really growing on me!

Previously, they did individual decorations on each lamp post, but it was more of a garlandy/wreathy (those aren't real words, by the way) type look. Here's the old type decoration for New Orleans Square lamp posts at the holidays.

But the new style is even more individual, and they are quite creative. There's about two dozen of them in total, throughout the Square.

 

[a2grafix]

Suprised that the French Market was all decorated up in early October with Nightmare Before Christmas overlay in New Orleans Square during my first visit to Disneyland since June 1999.

Loved the nice touch of "Club Skellington" during Disneyland's Halloweentime event, but the December decorations are awesome. Wonder if Disney will keep the holiday / lampost masks up through Fat Tuesday in early March?

 

[Baseballdude1]

Nicely done.
Need to get over to the parks one of these days to check them out again, only live about 15 mins. away.

 

[Arbok]

Very detailed photos. I had just gone there not too long ago, but even I missed all of the decorations that had gone up in this area. It really was one of the nicer Holiday themed portions of Disneyland.

 

[SeaCastle]

Thanks for the pictures, TP2000. I'm very jealous that WDW doesn't go through this level of decorating anywhere.