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Pre-Holiday Weekend at Disneyland in Anaheim

·Anaheim, California·#family trip#christmas#disneyland#california-adventure#theme-park
A woman and two girls stand in front of a Disneyland train and station building.

Drove down to Anaheim for a pre-holiday weekend at Disneyland — mid-November, decorations already up, crowds not yet at full December strength. The girls wore their Mickey and Minnie shirts through the gate under the train station, and the tree on Main Street was fully loaded, ornaments the size of their heads. Santa hat with mouse ears for one, polka-dot bow for the other.

We crossed over to California Adventure as it got dark and watched the ferris wheel and the coaster light up over the water at Paradise Pier, fountains going in the lagoon below.

The Christmas shirts came out the next day, all four of us, and we caught Mickey on Main Street in a green snowflake sweater and his own Santa hat. He posed like he had nowhere else to be. Then the castle, dressed in garland, one daughter grinning under her bow with her hair coming loose from its ponytail. The park has been running year-round since 1955 and it still fills up on a November weekend by mid-morning.

Three people smile in front of a Disney train station and a red train.An adult woman and two children stand in front of a red train and a clock tower building.A woman and two children stand in front of the Disneyland Railroad and station building.Two children, one in Minnie Mouse ears and one in a Mickey Santa hat, stand before a large Christmas tree.A brightly lit Mickey Mouse Ferris wheel and a roller coaster are visible against a pink and blue sky over water.An adult and two children in festive attire stand with Christmas-themed Mickey Mouse outside decorated buildings.A family of four stands smiling in front of a large, decorated Christmas tree, all wearing Disney-themed holiday clothing.A smiling child wearing Minnie Mouse ears and shirt, with a blurred castle in the background.

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