Our Visit to the Holiday Services Warehouse at Walt Disney World (Photos)

Hi everyone!

We were invited to the Holiday Services warehouse behind the Magic Kingdom as part of Halfway to the Holidays this week. We spent about one hour touring the 54,000 square foot warehouse, which is just one of three for a total of 160,000 square feet of space filled with festive trees and decorations down to the smallest detail – including for Halloween. This is my second or third time visiting the warehouse in my life, so it is a treat to be able to share it. Here is a look at our visit!

The first stop we made was the coolest – we came face to face with the 7-foot angel that tops the 65-foot EPCOT Christmas tree. From the ground, this angel looks small. But this iconic figure is much more beautiful and imposing close up.

Behind her are segments of the main EPCOT Christmas tree that is placed at the entrance to World Showcase. The tree is fully decorated with the familiar ornaments and also holiday greetings from around the world.

The various Christmas trees from around the parks and resorts can be found here. There are 18 working nights to decorate everything for the holidays, both interior and exterior. This starts at Halloween. Holiday Services is not in charge of every holiday display – for example, Christmas window decorations. But they are in charge of a lot. It is amazing how much they do over those 18 nights. I have been photographing Christmas at Walt Disney World for 15 years and there are always a lot of “wow” moments when walking into a park or resort that was decorated overnight.

Floral pieces, ribbons, ornaments and more fill baskets. They are organized differently depending on the items.

There are some festive touches, like these flowers at the end of one row. They are placed in a holder that looks like a candy cane.

Ribbon can be seen in baskets.

There are over 40,000 finished pieces for the parks, resorts and Disney Cruise Line and everything is looked at each year from February – September. Items get touched up with floral, ribbon and novelties. Holiday Services buys everything about a year in advance.

Hidden Mickeys in ornaments dangled in front of some of the rows of baskets.

There are a lot of ornaments to decorate the various trees and wreaths.

We walked by segments of the Christmas tree for Disney’s Animal Kingdom park.

Hidden Mickeys, animal ornaments and more are part of the design. We were told this area is called the artificial forest, with various trees from the parks and resorts.

There are boxes of large Santa decorations.

We passed by more floral.

Look up to see various swatches of ribbon.

Wire bins here have “Santa items, Santa outfits, Santa ornaments”.

Cast Members were working on various pieces in this workroom.

Festive pieces were set out on this table.

Decorations from the resorts are above, including for Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.

As we were about to leave the warehouse, we noticed on the ground the Disney ship names – it is where the Halloween trees would be placed for “Halloween on the High Seas” on the Disney Cruise Line. The trees have already been moved to prep them. Each tree has a name.

Disney Wonder is “Reap”.

“Bog” for the Disney Wonder.

“Grim” is the tree for the Disney Dream.

“Mucklebones” is the Disney Fantasy’s tree.

While the trees weren’t there, we did see some of the branches and pumpkins nearby.

We were offered to choose one ornament each during our visit. Jeff chose a traditional Santa and I picked a bear that reminded me of Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. That is in my top three Walt Disney World resorts to visit during the holiday season (with my favorite decorations).

Thank you to Disney for inviting us to tour the Holiday Services warehouse! It was fun being even more up-close and personal with trees and decorations I am familiar with from around the Walt Disney World parks and resorts.