Published in Travel Weekly on 25th November 2021
Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!” Santa’s familiar greeting booms out from nowhere,
taking me by surprise. I had just arrived on Main Street, USA, the first destination as you enter Disneyland Paris. And even though Christmas trees and decorations are everywhere, the fact that it’s daytime in mid-November, with fairly mild weather, means the experience is a little more confusing than anything else.
But it doesn’t take long to get into the Christmas spirit – this is the holiday season at Disneyland Paris, after all. Indeed, a light flutter of ‘snow’ appears as if on cue – as it does at least 12 times a day here – and the already excitable children around me start jumping up and down with their hands in the air.
Overhead, fairy lights are twinkling against the shiny baubles on Mickey-shaped garlands all the way from City Hall, where a 24-metre-tall Christmas fir takes pride of place, to Sleeping Beauty’s castle.