Christmastime at Disneyland!

Christmastime at Disneyland is my favorite time of year! The park is decorated so beautifully, and they have so many wonderful Christmas themed things going on. We went to the park this weekend to soak it all in.

I love the ginormous Christmas tree at the entrance of Main Street. It's just one of many, many trees throughout the park!

Main Street looks so beautiful all decked out in lights! It's almost enough to distract you from how incredibly crowded it is!

After spending some time in Disneyland, we went over to California Adventure. Their tree looks a lot like Disneyland's!

Even Cars Land gets in on the holiday decorating!

Here's a tree made of traffic cones at the Cozy Cone Motel! There was another one made of tires as well.

That evening, my boyfriend treated me to a lovely fancy dinner at Carthay Circle for Christmas! <3 It was our first time having a meal there (we had drinks in the lounge one time, though).

We saw another Christmas tree in the lounge area while we were waiting to be seated!

We started off with a couple drinks, of course. For our first round we tried the Derby; after that, we switched to our usual Irish Mules.

There were lots of pictures of Walt Disney adorning the walls; all pictures, with him or without, included Oscars. Literally not one picture did not include someone holding an Oscar.

For dinner, I had the Trofie pasta with smoked chicken, and it was delicious!

For dessert, we took home a box of Diamond Celebration truffles!

The next day, we decided to do some exploring. We've never been to the Disneyland hotel, so we headed over there to check things out. Even the entry way was beautiful and holiday themed. Check out these gorgeous poinsettias with lights all around!

The ceiling had upside-down spiral Christmas trees over the lights that made spiral patterns on the floor!

Immediately upon entering, there's an enormous gingerbread house. It's so big, I couldn't get the whole thing in frame!

Some carolers were stationed in front to serenade you with carols at you as you walk in!

Check out this beautiful rug! I need one of these for the apartment.

Their pool has a mini monorail that I assume is some sort of slide or something!

They have all kinds of beautiful painting depicting scenes and areas throughout Disneyland. 

There's even a whole wall dedicated to Disney memorabilia from throughout the years. I recognized a few items from the recent collector's auctions from Van Eaton galleries.

The Disneyland Hotel has several restaurants. We tried to go to Trader Sam's, which I've heard was awesome, but it looks like everyone else has heard that too, because it was completely full! We went instead to Steakhouse 55's lounge area, which was super chill and empty!

From there, we went to Downtown Disney. They had several little Christmas-themed mini-house things with different kinds of gifts you could buy, like boxes of candy, personalized mini surfboards, jewelry, and other trinkets and stocking stuffers. 

There was also an Olaf skating rink! I don't remember seeing that in past years. It didn't seem very crowded, but there were several skaters making their way around a giant Christmas tree!

Continuing on our exploration,  we made our way to Paradise Pier. This is another hotel we've never been to. There, we found yet another Christmas tree, this one ocean themed.

Paradise Pier also featured a lot of artwork of various areas of California Adventure.

Continuing on our tour of Disney hotels, we hit up the Grand Californian next. We stayed there before, also during Christmas time, and the hotel was as beautiful as I remembered it. Their lobby is just magnificent. The Liberty Belles, an all-female a capella group, performed as we enjoyed a drink from the Hearthstone Lodge.

The next day, we were back at Disneyland. We took the Holidaytime at Disneyland tour, which I'll post about tomorrow!

We also had lunch at Big Thunder Ranch, which is closing very soon to make way for Star Wars land. Big Thunder Ranch offers all you can eat barbeque chicken and ribs, as well as cornbread and beans! We were able to eat a couple buckets worth; the guys next to us chickened out (get it?!) after just one. 

The animals housed there (horses, goats, and sheep) will be sent to new homes soon, so I said goodbye to those crazy kids (get it? kids are baby goats! get it???) and sheepy-beeps.

The Disney's not done yet! I'll be posting more about our Disneyland trip over the next couple days!