The Story of The Candlelight Processional
I’ve always mentioned to people that if they ever get a chance to visit Walt Disney World during the Christmas Holiday Season, that they need to do everything in their power to turn that chance into a reality.
I’m sure some of you listening to my voice have perhaps had the opportunity to visit Walt Disney World during the holidays and I would think that most of you may agree with what I’m about to say.
But to those listening who have never been to Orlando during December please get comfy, settle back, and well, just listen.
You have heard me say several times that when that time comes to where you visit the Happiest Place on Earth, regardless of how many times you have visited in the past, that very first time you visit during the holiday season will feel like it is the very first time you have ever visited the resort.
There is a concerted effort by the Walt Disney Resort to envelope you in the holiday spirit. Everywhere you turn you will see decorations and throughout the day you will occasionally hear holiday music…and not just in the parks.
If you are fortunate to stay at one of the Walt Disney Resorts, you will find yourself even more ensconced in the holiday spirit.
The Deluxe resorts are especially draped in the holiday spirit with the lobbies of the Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Beach Club, Yacht Club, and Boardwalk and others occupied by grand Christmas trees in their lobbies with the trees decorated to reflect the resort in which they reside.
If you like gingerbread then Walt Disney World is where you want to be with places like The Grand Floridian, Contemporary, and Yacht Club leading the way with their special Gingerbread traditional displays.
Of course, as well as the resorts, each theme park and Disney Springs go to great lengths to keep you in the holiday spirit.
Basically, from the moment you step on resort property you will begin to feel the holiday spirit well within you. Regardless of where you go…. the parks, the resorts…Disney Springs…it is a festive atmosphere.
I will tell you that if I had to choose a month in which to visit the Walt Disney World Resort hands down it would be December…not April, not July, not October…but December. There is just no comparison.
Just like in any other time of the year a visit to Walt Disney World in December comes with it the assortment of experiences, noteworthy sights and sounds.
Such was the case with my initial visit to the resort in December. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, Holidays around the World, Storytellers in EPCOT, Gingerbread Houses in resort Lobbies, the Lights of Winter, and The Osborne Lights, were among the elements that caught my eye and lifted my spirit.
But there was one component of that first trip that kind of cinched in my mind the need to get down to Orlando every holiday season whenever possible.
That Component?
The Candlelight Processional.
I’m sure most fans of the Walt Disney Resort know of the Candlelight Processional but for those unaware let me give you the elevator talk.
The Candlelight Processional is an event held every night during the holiday season. It takes place in the EPCOT’s World Showcase at the American Gardens Theater directly across from the American Adventure.
It is made up of a huge choir; not sure just how many voices but has to be in the hundreds, including past and present voices of Liberty singers surrounded by local high school choirs. This choir is accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra and for each performance there is a celebrity narrator who tells the story of Christmas between pieces of music.
There are three performances for each night.
Okay…that’s the elevator speech.
I was so taken by this experience that immediately following the show I purchased the accompanying CD and, full disclosure, as I am jotting down notes for this discussion I am listening to that very CD in the background.
So, when did this Candlelight Processional event begin?
Well, it goes without saying that over the year’s most events that take place in Disney resorts around the world go through a metamorphosis…. it’s hard to hit a home run on your first try…. you learn and adapt.
Such is the case with the Candlelight Processional.
Being the Disney nerd that I am I was curious about the Candlelight Processional. How did it come about? When did it start? How did it get to EPCOT? Lots of questions to which I needed to find answers.
Well, after a few days of digging around for these answers I came up with some interesting facts about the Candlelight Processional.
It all started in 1955…the inaugural year for Disneyland.
It was during that initial holiday season at Disneyland that Walt Disney contacted Dr. Charles C. Hirt who was the Director of Choral Music at USC Thornton School of Music
Walt enlisted Dr. Hirt and said he thought it would be wonderful to have Dickens carolers on Main Street, USA for his guests. Walt also said he wanted to be able to hear the carolers from his private apartment which we know was above the fire station in Town Square.
The first order of business was to erect a stage was in front of the train station for the carolers to sing to the guests.
That first holiday season the carolers performed throughout the Disneyland Park.
The Disney Company invited guest choirs to perform daily at the bandstand on Main Street, USA. During the Christmas Season this area of Disneyland was called the “Christmas Bowl.”
On the opening day of the Disneyland Holiday Festival, in the afternoon, the Dickens carolers, along with additional voices from visiting choirs stood on the Train Station steps and sang Christmas carols. The music was supplied be several school bands.
The following year those school bands were replaced by the Disneyland Band. Dr. Hirt continued to direct the entire choir.
This was just the start. The following year, in 1957 this event expanded. The choirs made up what was called the “Christmas Around the World Parade.” The parade route included going through The Sleeping Beauty Castle and into the Disneyland Plaza where the guests would be entertained by the singers.
However, this event had grown so popular over its first two years that when the entire choir made its way into the plaza where they were to form a circle to perform…oops…the number of guests took up most of that area. The show must go on so instead of forming a circle together the singers stood around the plaza around the Disneyland Band and sort of sang in an informal manner.
Dr. Hirt recognized how much the entire choir was loved by Disneyland guests and thought it would make sense to invite even more voices…but there had to be some way to ensure the singers would perform together in a more “formal” setting.
So, in 1958 a change. That year you could say was the year that the term “Candlelight Processional “can be first properly used.
On that year the choirs formed a procession and made their way down Main Street, USA to the Plaza. They were joined by the Dickens Carolers who sang from the Sleeping Beauty Castle balcony.
Two years later, in 1960 this holiday event came back to the Town Square. It was this year in which we see the first of narrators brought in to read passages of the Christmas Story between song renditions.
It was also in 1960 that Disneyland guests first saw the “Living Christmas Tree.” The living tree was created by choral director Alexander Benchoff, whose students at Western High School in Anaheim performed in the show annually until the 1980s.
This tree, basically a structure comprised of risers, allowed the singers to assemble to a point in which they appeared in the shape of a Christmas Tree. This became a very popular part of the program. This living tree soon became the centerpiece of the Candlelight Processional and tree spots were treated as places of honor for the event. In fact, due to the popularity of this Acapella choir they retained their spots on the tree until 1981 when their director retired.
In 1982 Disney formed the Disney Employee choir and from that year on it was this group that has held the honorable spot of the Living Christmas Tree.
Also, going back in 1960 actor Dennis Morgan began this procession of narrators and was followed by celebrities such as legendary Hollywood figures like Henry Fonda, Cary Grant, Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart and others.
Walt Disney continued to support the event until his death in 1966, and last attended the processional in December 1965 with Dick Van Dyke as narrator.
To this day the Disneyland Candlelight Processional continues the tradition of beginning from “It’s a Small World” in Disneyland’s Fantasyland and gradually makes its way to the steps of the train station. At the Train Station they are welcomed by the orchestra who provides the music for the event.
However, I should note that Disneyland’s Candlelight Processional occurs only twice nightly in early December.
Disneyland’s Candlelight Processional is held a total of four times. Disneyland’s Candlelight Processional is a mostly private event. Disneyland’s Candlelight Processional is held for invited guests, Club 33 members, and other VIP guests with shows each night at 5:30 P.M. and 7:45 P.M. Regular park guests are also able to see the show from Main Street.
In Disneyland the 45-minute show is a musical retelling of “The First Christmas” story through song and scripture, featuring a mass choir as the centerpiece of the show. The Disneyland Symphony Orchestra is joined by fanfare trumpets, hand bell ringers, and a celebrity guest narrator.
The popularity of this event dictated that it should definitely be brought to Walt Disney World, and it was first introduced in Walt Disney World in that resort’s first ever holiday season.
There was only one person who could bring the Candlelight Processional to the Walt Disney World resort and that was Dr. Hirt. Hirt flew in from California to help stage the production, with Rock Hudson as the first narrator and Frederick Fennell as conductor. At the beginning, the event was staged in front of Cinderella Castle, and then moved a few years later, in front of the train station, like the Disneyland version.
At Disney World, the event was growing in popularity and demand, and it was decided it would move to Epcot in 1982. James Earl Jones was the final narrator at Magic Kingdom. The event then began being performed from Thanksgiving weekend to New Years. Dr. Charles Hirt had since retired. Derric Johnson became conductor of the event at Disney World, and Jim Christensen (1935-2020) was passed the baton at Disneyland.
Derric Johnson had previously developed Re-Generation, a professional acapella singing group that performed at Magic Kingdom in the 1970s and eventually evolved into Voices of Liberty when Epcot opened in 1982.
Johnson, a composer, offered Disney his own custom arrangements of classic holiday songs.
Phylicia Rashad became the first narrator for the Epcot version in 1994, and the show has been performed every year since with exception of 2020 when it was cancelled on both coasts due to Covid-19.
In 2022, Dr. John V. Sinclair, Director of Music at Rollins College, was honored for conducting over 1,000 performances of the Candlelight Processional at Disney World. I happened to attend one of those performances.
Nancy Sulahian has conducted the Disneyland version most recently. She is currently Director of Choral Music at CalTech in Pasadena, California.
Each performance is narrated by a guest narrator who I would suppose to be affiliated at one time in their careers with the Walt Disney Company. If anyone out there wants to verify this bit of information be my guest. I am not sure I have the knowledge to verify this statement.
In Disneyland, the narrator of the event is kept secret until the day of the first performance, with as I have previously noted, two shows per evening and two nights only.
However, Walt Disney World announces their narrator lineup ahead of time so guests can plan their vacations accordingly to which narrator they would like to see.
As I remember, the first time I attended the Candlelight Processional I did one of the CP Dining packages to guarantee a seat inside the America Gardens Theatre at the American pavilion at Epcot.
It’s called a processional because the choir enters one by one, with each member wearing traditional robes and holding a candle. I’m told by those more into the musical arts than I am that performers are arranged and lined up based on their height and voice part.
Once again to review at Disneyland, the event is held on Main Street, U.S.A. with a stage setup around the train station in Town Square.
At Epcot, the event takes place in the American Gardens Theater.
The songs are custom composed and arranged for Disney to retell the nativity story, with orchestrations performed by a large orchestra.
If you are interested in the songs used, I suggest going to Spotify and doing a search for the Candlelight Processional, that will call up the playlist.
By the way…. the narrator for the Spotify playlist is none other than Phylicia Rashad…. the first narrator for the EPCOT version of the Candlelight Processional in 1994.
Over the years a few changes have been made.
In EPCOT the first nightly performance is performed by youth choirs and the remaining two performances include cast members who audition to perform. As I understand it, these cast members perform on a volunteer basis and are not additionally compensated for performing.
Of course, guest choirs must also audition.
There are “veteran choirs” who seem to appear more often than others. One choir is Seminole High School located in Sanford, Florida.
I can tell you that there is nothing like attending the Candlelight Processional and at the end of the program snow begins to fall….IN FLORIDA mind you.
So that is the story of The Candlelight Processional.
If you ever get a chance to visit either the Disneyland or Walt Disney World Resort during the holidays you will surely not regret it.
It is just one of the many sights and sounds of the holidays you will experience during your visit.
See you next time.