Universal Studios Hollywood Offers an Impressive Holiday Season (Through December 29th, 2019) – Photos & Video

Hi everyone!

We were invited to Universal Studios Hollywood to experience their celebration of the holiday season. I thought I knew what to expect after having visited the Orlando version so often – but I didn’t. I was really surprised by the amount of decor all over the park and the number of characters meeting in holiday costumes. That included the Grinch at about an hour and a half wait for the afternoon, we didn’t meet him this time but there were SO many others we saw or met. And the Grinchmas tree lighting is very nice. We ended the evening at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to see The Magic of Christmas at Hogwarts Castle, a stunning projection show. Universal Studios Hollywood celebrates the holidays through December 29th, 2019 so there is still time to enjoy this festive celebration!

To begin with, the weather was rainy on the day we visited – it did clear by late afternoon, but it meant some things we didn’t end up doing (we opted instead for indoor attractions like Transformers). Once the weather cleared up, I took a walk around Univeral Hollywood and was really amazed by the overlay that it receives for the holidays – the decorations are all over the park, and even on some signs like at the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem attraction. We also stopped for some characters, including Hello Kitty (who was indoors during the rain), Poppy, Shrek and Donkey. These characters – and most characters at Universal Hollywood – do not have long lines. I mentioned the Grinch did, and I found the most consistently busy area of the park to be the Grinchmas area because of the meet and greets and then at night, the Wholiday Tree Lighting Ceremony.

We talk about Universal Studios Hollywood for the holidays on our Mousesteps Weekly show #331, I queued the video to the beginning of the Universal segment.

There are wreaths outside the park with various characters, including Hello Kitty and the Minions. There are also smaller Grinchmas trees.

Hello Kitty was our first stop. We didn’t realize at first that she was inside due to the rain, and I don’t think many others did either.

Shrek has a fantastic costume that includes Donkey on it. Some of the characters receive more elaborate costumes than others and I think Shrek might have the best. We met Donkey too!

Curious George wears a Santa hat and scarf.

I went to check out the Who-lidays, which features a variety of Streetmosphere characters, the Grinch and Max meet and greets, special treats and more.

If you don’t want to wait in line for the real Grinch, you can have a photo here with snowman Grinch! Or you can do both.

I was going to buy a Grinch doughnut before leaving the park, but the line was very long at night. During the day there wasn’t much of a wait for treats, so I recommend doing that.

I mentioned that the decorations at Universal Hollywood are just about everywhere. That includes in the signage for Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. I love the Minions in Santa hats!

King Julien was festive as well and had only one or two guests in line waiting to meet him.

The tree lighting ceremony is very nice. it does play a number of times per night and can get crowded. Arrive a little early! It is a presentation that includes The Grinch.

The Magic of Christmas at Hogwarts Castle is a wonderful way to cap off the evening. It is a projection show that is also very popular but not too crazy for getting a good spot when we went.

This had to be the most popular photo spot in the park. At the end of the evening, we finally were able to get a few photos!

The amount of photos and video we took is lot less than we normally would have due to the weather.

Here is our Wholiday Tree Lighting Ceremony video!