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Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party has become a cherished tradition for many Disney fans and a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday season at the most magical place on Earth. The first event took place in 1983 as a way to extend the holiday season at the Magic Kingdom and provide a special Christmas-themed experience for visitors.
In its early years, the party typically featured festive decorations throughout the park, special holiday-themed entertainment, and exclusive character meet-and-greets. However, arguably one of the most important components of the event was, and still is, the food. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party has always featured a selection of seasonal treats and snacks that are not typically available in the park during the rest of the year. These treats often include items like gingerbread cookies, eggnog, peppermint-flavored desserts, and other Christmas-themed goodies.
Disney has recently released a full guide to the food guests will encounter at the 2023 party, which will take place from November 9th through December 22nd. While most people might think November is a bit early to start celebrating Christmas, us theme park fans know that more time for celebration is rarely a bad thing. With that said, let’s see what’s on the menu for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 2023.
Located on Main Street, U.S.A.
The first section of the park we’ll be diving into is Main Street, U.S.A., which houses a few dining locations with holiday treats. Let’s break them down:
Casey’s Corner
The popular hot dog shop will be home to the Candy Cane Tart this season. The dessert pastry will be a chocolate tart filled with peppermint ganache and topped with festive meringue. For those who don’t know, ganache is a pastry glaze that’s usually made from chocolate, cream, or, in this case, peppermint. Meanwhile, the meringue is the peppermint-looking topping. This means that this pastry will be great for chocolate and peppermint lovers.
Main Street Bakery
The Main Street Bakery is always whipping up some sweet treats. During the party, they’ll feature the classic Minnie-shaped Cinnamon Roll. As you can see, this isn’t you’re average cinnamon roll; it’s topped with red icing, red and green sprinkles, and a polka-dot bow made of chocolate.
Whole Foods flourless chocolate cake-lovers beware. The bakery will also offer the Letter to Santa, a bite-sized piece of flourless chocolate cake filled with hot cocoa mousse and topped with marshmallow and chocolate pieces, some of which look like a letter and candy cane.
Plaza Ice Cream Parlor
Your one-stop shop for ice cream at the Magic Kingdom will be serving up a Peppermint Brownie Sundae. While a picture of the dessert wasn’t provided from Disney, it is said have peppermint ice cream, hot fudge and candy cane sprinkles, all atop a brownie. Sounds like a delicious and relatively “safe” pick at the party!
Outdoor Vending Locations Near Cinderella’s Castle
While not specified exactly what these outdoor vending locations will look like, it can be inferred they will most likely be your typical food-stands found throughout the park. These vendors will feature a Red Velvet Wreath, which is a red velvet donut topped with green, red and white “holiday” sprinkles and a buttercream bow.
Also, what’s a food stand at the Magic Kingdom without a churro? These vending locations will also have a Hot Cocoa Churro, which will be a churro covered in hot cocoa powder. The treat will also be designed with marshmallows and peppermint candy pieces to give it some extra flare.
Located in Tomorrowland
That’s right, they still celebrate Christmas in the future! Here’s a look at the festive delicacies of Tomorrowland:
Auntie Gravity’s Galactic Goodies
Your favorite pun-named counter service is home to the Reindeer Chow Sundae. Something about this dessert looks incredible, even though it’s just chocolate soft-serve ice cream with toppings. Those toppings happen to be pretzels, Chex cereal, chocolate M&M’s and hot fudge.
Also at Auntie Gravity’s is the Lump of Coal in your Stocking. While coal is usually a bad thing, I would love an entire cookies n’ cream milkshake to drink out of a sock. This shake is topped with whipped cream, cookies n’ cream crumbles and a chocolate donut hole. While I love those “over-the-top” shakes you find at places like Toothsome Chocolate Factory in Universal, I think I prefer the look of the Lump of Coal. It’s a bit scaled back while still featuring an unnecessary yet fun addition of a donut hole.
Cool Ship
Man, Cool Ship is so ********************ing cool. I love how cool it is. The Cool Ship is only home to one holiday dessert, but it is so cool. The Magic Holiday Tree is made of cool coconut, cool pecans and cool M&M’s on a, get this, cool graham cracker. It’s so cool.
Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe
Sonny Eclipse may have yet to sing Christmas carols on stage, but at least his restaurant celebrates Christmas! This is the first restaurant on our list to feature more than just dessert. First, the Holiday Pot Roast Melt will be a sandwich with slow-cooked beef, cheddar and provolone cheese and beef gravy.
If you’re not in the mood for beef, the Holiday Turkey Burger might be for you. This burger seems to be going more in the “Thanksgiving” direction, as it’s topped with traditional stuffing, provolone cheese and cranberry chutney. I’m not sure if this flavor combination will be good or not, but the brioche bun will hopefully hold it all together, both literally and figuratively.
For dessert, Cosmic Ray’s is offering the Christmas Cookie Cake. This treat is a “roll” of cookie cake surrounded by buttercream and and topped with a few sprinkles. The cookie cake sounds like a cookie cake-loving Andrew’s best dream, but the overwhelming amount buttercream sounds like a frosting-hating Andrew’s worst nightmare.
Located in Fantasyland
Now we have Fantasyland, which has a few different locations offering holiday treats:
The Friar’s Nook
The Friar’s Nook is also offering some non-treat items, the first being the Holiday Ham Fried Pie. This savory pie will be made with flaky pastry and filled with baked ham, candied sweet potatoes and spiced pecans. It’ll also be served with a pineapple glaze. While this sounds yummy, I do wish it had one or two more fillings. It just seems like ham, sweet potatoes and pecans aren’t enough. Perhaps a vegetable or two would round it out.
Next up is the Italian Beef Tots, which are the next in a long line of speciality “tots” dishes from Disney. They’ve been a long-running fan favorite, and it’s easy to see why. The dish is essentially tater-tots topped with slow-cooked beef, cheese curds, zesty giardiniera and pot roast gravy. Those cheese curds speak to my former Wisconsinite, so I would love to give this a try or recreate it myself somehow.
Also, giardiniera is essentially relish made from pickled vegetables. Just in case you didn’t know (I’ll admit that I didn’t).
For dessert, The Friar’s Nook has the Peppermint Snowman. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a brownie on this list, but the snowman is just that. Sure, it might not look like a brownie, but that’s because it’s covered in cookies n’ cream peppermint mousse.
Also available is the Winter Milk Shake. This appears to be a non-dairy alternative, being made with coconut milk and topped with whipped cream, toasted coconut, cinnamon and crisp pearls. While the toppings don’t look as appealing as the aforementioned “Lump of Coal,” it’s nice to see them offer a non-dairy option. I actually remember having an ice-cream in Animal Kingdom with similar crisp pearls as a topping, and it was a nice touch.
Storybook Treats
Storybook Treats might only be offering one holiday item, but it looks super unique. The Sugar Plum Sundae is sugar plum soft-serve ice cream atop a crumbled sugar cookie and topped with whipped cream, crisp pearls, and cotton candy. While the whipped cream and crisp pearls seem pretty par for the course, the cotton candy is a very fun addition. I can’t quite imagine how it’ll taste alongside ice cream. Also, I’ve never had a sugar plum, so I’m not sure what the ice cream itself will taste like. It sounds like something that will either be perfect, or way too sweet.
Located in Liberty Square
Next up is Liberty Square, which has one restaurant location offering Christmas treats.
Sleepy Hollow Refreshments
Sleepy Hollow knows how to do waffles (if you’ve tried the chicken and waffles, you know) and the Holiday Waffle Sundae looks to be no exception. This dessert is a red velvet waffle, which will probably taste similar to the previously mentioned red velvet donut. It’s topped with M&M’s, peppermint ice cream and hot fudge. It’s pretty simple, but I’m sure it’ll be a sweet take on a waffle.
What’s Christmas without milk and cookies? The Milk and Cookies for Santa is a brown sugar cookie cake covered in chocolate chip cookie dough mousse, milk mousse, and chocolate chip cookies. That’s a lot of mousse and chocolate chips!
Located in Frontierland
The wild west gets into the Christmas spirit with one location as well:
Golden Oak Outpost
Perhaps the best shake of the Christmas party comes in the form of the Orange Gingerbread Shake. This shake is made of orange cream slushy and topped with gingerbread pieces, gingerbread spice and whipped cream. The gingerbread pieces are also layered throughout the drink to break up the flavor. Sure, this may be an acquired taste, but I think it looks delicious.
Also available is the Gingerbread Cake. This cake has quite a few layers, including cream cheese frosting, dulce de leche ganache and a gingerbread man chocolate piece.
Located in Adventureland
The final land in the Magic Kingdom has plenty of offerings as well. Here they are:
Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe
Pecos Bill serves Mexican-inspired dishes, so it makes sense the first one on our list would be a Chicken Tamale served “Christmas-style.” This means it has mild red chile and green chile-pumpkin seed sauces. It also features cilantro rice, pinto beans and queso fresco. This might be the best looking non-dessert food on offer, at least in my opinion.
In the sweet-treats department, Pecos Bill has the Chocolate Eggnog Reindeer. This is another chocolate tart, but this time it has eggnog mousse and chocolate antlers. It also looks to have a red M&M to act as a nose, akin to Rudolph!
Now, we have our first drink that’s not a milkshake! The Orange-Cranberry Pineapple Punch is a non-alcoholic beverage that focuses on bringing various fruity flavors together. The bitterness from the cranberries, the citrus from the oranges and the sour of the pineapple will certainly make for a delicious combination. The description for the drink also says there will be a “hint of smoke from the fireplace” implying that it could have a smoky smell or aftertaste.
Sunshine Tree Terrace
Finally we have Sunshine Tree Terrace, original home of the dole whip. In vein of the dole whip comes the Cranberry Citrus Float with Orange-Vanilla Soft Serve Twist. The ice cream will be placed on top a blend of Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry (I didn’t know such a thing existed) and fruity boba pearls. I love boba, and while this doesn’t sound like it’s the tapioca seed kind, which I vastly prefer, the ones that pop in your mouth are still delicious.
Finally, we have the dessert to end all desserts, the cube…also known as Santa’s Belt Buckle. Something about the this treat looks so strange, like nothing edible should be that geometrically perfect. That said, the ingredients sound pretty great. It’s made of pistachio mousse and filled with dark chocolate truffle in the center. The buckle itself is also made of chocolate, meaning you probably can’t wear it. It’s definitely one of the more unique items on offer.
Final Thoughts on the 2023 Menu
Writing this drained me.
That sounds dramatic, but it’s true. I started writing this article because I thought it would be fun to discuss all the different items on offer and see how they compared to each other. Disney tends to be known for offering incredibly creative food at their parks, and some of these hold true to that statement. However, a vast majority of them made me realize how boring the flavors of Christmas have become.
That’s a bold statement, and it’s not necessarily Disney’s fault. I’m sure if you just skim this article and look at the pictures, all of this looks pretty good. If you made it to this part though, and read every word, you’ll probably understand when I say I felt like I was writing “peppermint” and “chocolate” and “gingerbread” way too much. Don’t get me wrong, these are all popular flavors, but it seems like so much of the stuff at the Christmas Party sound the same. There’s like three different milkshakes, a bunch of tarts and pastries (almost all of which involve chocolate) and barely any non-dessert style food. It just feels so…been there, done that.
Do I recommend the menu of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party? I guess so. If you want your usual Christmas flavors and treats, this will do the trick. I suppose that’s one of the reasons you go to a Christmas party anyways. If I were to go though, I’d say my top five items I’d want to try are as follows:
- The Chicken Tamale
- Sugar Plum Sundae
- Holiday Turkey Burger
- Hot Cocoa Churro
- Santa’s Belt Buckle (cause it looks weird)
All of these items, to me, are far more unique than the rest of the menu. While these options probably aren’t perfect, all the flavors are weird enough and not necessarily what you think of when you hear “Christmas food.” To me, the holiday season can be about trying new, different food just as much as it’s about savoring the common ones.
While I wish there was a bit more variety, I’d be lying if I said the pictures didn’t make my mouth water. If the same happened to you, consider visiting Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom. Tickets on sale now here.
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