The Ride:
Haunted Mansion Holiday is done each year at Disneyland Park. Jack Skellington, from the Nightmare Before Christmas invades the Haunted Mansion with his friends, his pumpkins, and his dog Zero. The façade of Haunted Mansion is decorated with pumpkins, a Christmas countdown clock (that shows 0 days until Christmas) and with Sandy Claws sitting on the fence surrounding the Haunted Mansion. In addition to this you will see the standard spider webs that are there year round.
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Inside the stretching room pictures have all been changed to reflect Nightmare Before Christmas scenes, and the final on the ceiling is of Jack Skellington's head. As you walk down the hallway toward the loading zone, the pictures on the wall have also been changed to Nightmare Before Christmas scenes.
The loading for the ride does not change during the Holiday makeover, but the loading zone is a totally different experience with the holiday decorations up and ready to scare you, wishing you a very scary Christmas.
The ride itself is completely transformed for the holiday makeover to the delight of Nightmare Before Christmas fans. Inside you will see Zero floating down a hallway, a long list of names for gifts from Sandy Claws, and of course you will see Sandy Claws in full view. Snow covers much of the interior as well. For 2006 Oogie Boogie has been added in a scene with presents in addition to his role at the end of the ride.
The Review:
On our trip in December, 2006 we took our 4 year old son Alex to Disneyland, and it was the first holiday trip for him since 2001 when he was only 14 months old. He has never had a problem with this attraction, aside from the loud screams in the stretching room, so we were prepared for that. Before our trip to Disneyland, we did show him the film, The Nightmare Before Christmas to prepare him for the changes to the ride. He enjoyed the movie, but we still were not sure how he would react to the holiday version of Haunted Mansion.
Unable to find our earplugs the night before we were to fly out, we decided we could simply cover his ears in the stretching room, and this worked perfectly. What really surprised us was his total love of the ride. He didn't simply sit back in the Doom Buggie and watch the attraction. He leaned forward intently holding onto the safety bar to watch as we went through Haunted Mansion Holiday. He was thrilled each time he spied Jack Skellington or Sandy Claws.
Alex absolutely loved this attraction. We went on it more times than I can count much to our surprise. We used this attraction to take Alex on while the adults rode rides he could not, or would not ride on this trip.
I heard several parents walking by saying their toddlers were too young for this attraction. I don't know about their children, but Alex loved it. Amazingly, with the standard Haunted Mansion being one of my favorite attractions, I also loved the Holiday makeover this year!