How Disney parks have celebrated Halloween over the years

Tarah ChieffiOct 25, 2020, 18:54 IST

Staff members dressed as Disney characters welcome the upcoming Halloween at Shanghai Disney Resort on October 14, 2018 in Shanghai, China. Shanghai Disney Resort celebrates the upcoming Halloween with lots of decorations and activities.Getty Images/Visual China Group

Every Disney park around the world throws its own unique Halloween celebration, but most started much smaller than what you see today.
Insider spoke with Graham Allan, coauthor of the Disney Editions book, "Holiday Magic at Disney Parks: Celebrations Around the World from Fall to Winter," to learn more about how the holiday has evolved at the parks.
At one time, Halloween wasn't considered a family-friendly holiday and wasn't celebrated in a big way at Disney parks.
Shanghai Disneyland was the last park to join in celebrating Halloween, throwing its first party in 2017.

Over the past 60 years, Disney has learned a thing or two about throwing a party. But the early days of Halloween at Disney were nothing like what you can experience at its parks around the world, though this year's celebrations have been modified due to the pandemic.

"Holiday Magic at Disney Parks: Celebrations Around the World from Fall to Winter," a new book from Disney Editions, includes photos of Disney's past and present Halloween festivities along with historical resources from the Walt Disney Archives.

Insider spoke with the book's coauthor, Graham Allan, whose day job is in studio operations for Walt Disney Studios, to learn more about Halloween through the years at Disney parks.

Disneyland's first Halloween celebration took place in 1959, four years after the California park opened.

Participants in Disneyland's 1959 Parade of Pumpkins received free admission to the park for the day. Photo Courtesy of Disney Editions

Halloween celebrations at Disney were minimal through the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s.

Hollywood Studios' Earful Tower became "Fearful Tower" for Halloween in 1994. Photo Courtesy of Disney Editions

In the mid-'90s, Disney brought family-friendly Halloween celebrations to its parks on both coasts.

Disney parks decorate with hundreds of happy pumpkins for Halloween, like this one pictured above in Magic Kingdom Park in 2018. Photo Courtesy of Disney Editions

Disney brought its friendly version of Halloween to Tokyo and Paris in the late 1990s.

Mickey Mouse greets guests from a float during the preview of the Halloween parade at Tokyo Disneyland in September 2017. YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/Getty Images

By the 2000s and 2010s, Halloween at Disney was getting bigger than the giant Mickey pumpkin at the front gates.

"Disney Halloween Time" themed attractions at Hong Kong Disneyland in 2017. Joshua Lee/South China Morning Post via Getty Images

Some of Disney's Halloween parties have gotten darker as they've grown.

A mess of thorny vines take shape as Maleficent in the Castle courtyard at Disneyland Paris. Photo Courtesy of Disney Editions

Halloween at Disney looks very different this year in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Disney World is running unscheduled mini parades with a handful of performers that allow guests to see characters without encouraging large crowds. Kent Phillips/Disney

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