Haunted Mansion Holiday - The Attraction

The Attraction

The outside of the Mansion has been covered in both jack-o-lanterns and Christmas decorations. On the roof is Jack Skellington's coffin sleigh and stretched from the roof to the floor is his comical "Christmas Equation". There is also the countdown clock from Nightmare that tells how many days are left until Christmas (during the first year of operation the clock's setting was changed each day, but ever since has remained static at "000"). A music box track from Disneyland Paris' Phantom Manor plays in the outdoor areas. At Tokyo Disneyland, the Mansion does not have a countdown clock or a Christmas Equation hanging from the roof, because of the design differences between the Mansions. Pumpkin-snowmen can be seen and orchestrations from the movie and ride play in the queue area.

Guests are then ushered into the foyer, which has been decorated with skull wreaths and such. The Ghost Host begins to tell the story of the attraction in rhyme, and guests proceed into one of the two portrait chambers. At Tokyo, a painting of Jack transforming from the Pumpkin King to his Sandy Claws guise replaces the Aging Man changing portrait.

The stretching portraits have been replaced with stained-glass pictures depicting innocent Christmas scenes, with wreaths as their frames. When the doors close, the chamber goes dark and begins to stretch. The pictures make sounds, as if bursting into shards, and luminescent portraits of Halloween's Christmas vision emerge, depicting Sandy Claws riding his coffin sleigh high above the mansion, a man-eating wreath, scary toys, Sandy Claws opening a giant sack as ghosts rise up and a giant carnivorous snake. The Ghost Host begins reciting a dark variation of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from Tim Burton's original poem as eerie music plays, extensively featuring a choir. The suspense builds until lightning crashes and Jack's face appears above, cackling, "Happy Holidays, everyone!", to replace the hanging body of the ghost host. His laughter fills the room, a woman screams and everything goes pitch black.

The doors open, leading into the portrait hall. The changing portraits here have also been replaced with ones depicting Jack Skellington, Sally, the Haunted Mansion, a snowman, and Santa Claus in his sleigh. The choir returns as the song "Kidnap the Sandy Claws" begins to play. A snowstorm appears to be taking place outside the windows and the three musicians from the movie are also outside. The staring busts have spider-webs in front of them that glisten with the words "NOEL" and "HO-HO-HO." The loading area is decorated with even more Halloween and Christmas decor, and there is a huge animated Christmas card, with many of the characters from Nightmare celebrating the season. The card is much of a treat to the eyes itself, featuring the words "MERRY CHRISTMAS" at the bottom of the card, whereas the message changes to "SCARY CHRISTMAS" occasionally. At Tokyo, there is no portrait hall like Disneyland's. Instead, immediately after the portrait chamber, the guests enter the loading area, which is decorated with orange Christmas lights and Halloween pumpkins. After boarding, the guests glide underneath a landing from where Jack, Sally and the Vampire Teddy Bear, greet guests. The ride through Portrait Corridor features portraits of the film's characters performing various activities, and watching as the guests go by. Orange Christmas lights wrap around the staring busts in the library as Zero wraps a floating tree made out of books with tinsel garland. In the music room, guests see a life-size audio-animatronic Sally, seeming depressed and sitting in the chair next to the ghostly piano that the Vampire Teddy plays. The doom buggies then move up the stairs, passing terrified green cockroaches in cages, with gift tags that read: "For Oogie." At the top of the stairs, Oogie Boogie's shadow appears and turns into a Christmas tree shape in the full moon above. The original, black-lighted rubber spiders remain.

At Disneyland, upon boarding the doom buggies, guests ascend the staircase. At the top, there are piles of presents with the Vampire Teddy sitting on them, fishing for humans. As the Ghost Host continues explaining the story, Zero is now seen floating in the endless hallway. The moving suit of armor wears a pumpkin mask and has garland wrapped around it. A pile of dog bones are in front of the hallway and a wreath made of dog bones adorns the top of the hall. On one floating bone, a tag reads "To Zero". Presents sit in the chair and poinsettias reside next to the chair. The corpse trapped in the coffin is unchanged, but the Vampire Teddy now sits on it, hammering nails back in. A tag reading "Do Not Open 'Til Christmas" hangs from the lid. The dead funeral flowers have sprung back to life and now choir the song "Kidnap the Sandy Claws". The corridor of doors is now filled with the same comically vicious flowers, all singing loudly. Guests then pass underneath a large, yellow-eyed man-eating wreath with teeth, which all the flowers seem to be connected to. The demonic grandfather clock remains.

Madame Leota floats along with several glowing bottles surrounding her and now chants The 13 Days of Christmas with Vampire Teddy sits on the top of the chair behind Leota's table, ringing two tiny bells with the seance. A bewitched nutcracker with eyes glowing green moves its mouth in unison with Leota. The floating instruments have been replaced with huge tarot cards, depicting Leota's 13 Christmas gifts, of which she is chanting. In Tokyo, the raven remains in this scene and Leota is covered in candles, with Lock, Shock, and Barrel appearing in the back of the room.

The doom buggies then move into the ballroom. The ghosts here are the same, but the decorations have changed. The table is set for a Christmas party and a huge ginger-dread house sits in the center, which is different each year. An immense dead Christmas tree (with one live branch at the top) covered in skull and jack-o-lantern candles and spiders with lights now sits in the middle of the dance floor, but the ghosts waltz right through it. Zero floats above the scene near the tree at both parks. At Disneyland, the curtains at the top of the staircase in the back of the hall have opened, revealing the mansion's library, complete with a floating tree made of books held up by Zero. In Tokyo, Jack and Sally's shadows are seen exchanging presents behind that curtain instead.

Guests are then taken to the attic, where most of the usual props and characters have been replaced with a clutter of all sorts of creepy toys and presents wrapped in bright but deathly wrapping paper. A huge snake coils around the room with a "naughty and nice" list hanging out of its mouth and presents in its stomach. Throughout the room, some of the evil toys come to life as the guests pass by, including three jack-in-the-boxes (one featuring a stylized skull, another a black cat's head and another a jack-o-lantern), a bullet hole-ridden duck, a cymbal-crashing Oogie Boogie doll and a monstrous train on tentacle-like tracks.

As you leave the attic and head out onto the balcony, snowflakes are seen falling instead of ghosts rising. Going down the stairs next to the balcony, the guests witness the Vampire Teddy chewing on Christmas lights, threatening to blow a fuse. As the doom buggies reach the bottom, they pass by an audio-animatronic figure of Jack in his Sandy Claws outfit with Zero at his side, wishing the guests a Merry Christmas as a replacement to the wide-eyed caregiver and his terrified dog. The graveyard is now covered in snow, and the spiral hill from the movie is featured as a centerpiece, covered in glowing pumpkins. The music combines "Grim Grinning Ghosts", "Jingle Bells", "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Jolly Old St. Nicholas". The vehicles pass under huge snow angels with jack-o-lantern heads. The singing busts have been replaced with singing jack-o-lanterns at the base of the spiral hill. Before entering the crypt, guests see the Vampire Teddy one last time, playing a trumpet with another pumpkin-headed snow angel above.

The doom buggies then enter the crypt, where now, an audio-animatronic Oogie Boogie stands next to a roulette machine under black light, offering the guests a game. The guests see bizarre presents instead of hitchhiking ghosts when they go by the mirrors and if the present is a coffin imprinted with a question mark, Lock, Shock, and Barrel will pop out from behind each of the three mirrors. Lastly, there is a tiny version of Sally, who thanks Jack and tells guests to hurry back.

In Tokyo's version of the scene and for the first two years in Anaheim, the crypt features Lock, Shock, and Barrel inside some presents, hitching a ride with the guests. Sally bids goodbye, and then the guests disembark in a wreath-adorned mausoleum.