As part of our "12 Days of Christmas" special, we asked Disney historian, Paula Sigman Lowery, to tell us about Holidayland!
When we look at the “Disneyland of Walt’s Imagination”—the wonderful model showcased at the Walt Disney Family Museum—we are enchanted by the miniature versions of the lands Walt and his artists created: Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Frontierland, Adventureland… plus Main Street, U.S.A. and New Orleans Square. But there’s one land that we don’t see, a land that existed for only five years: Holidayland.
The very name evokes thoughts of the Christmas season, but in reality, Holidayland came to life in the summer of 1957 as a picnic and play area for groups and special events. With a private entrance to Disneyland, a regulation softball diamond, horseshoe pits and volleyball court, Holidayland featured—direct from its starring role in Disneyland’s Mickey Mouse Club Circus—the “world’s largest candy-striped circus tent.”
At first dubbed “Holiday Park,” the picnic and special events area was originally planned for a woodsy area between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, but ended up just outside the berm, near Frontierland.
The May, 1957 issue of Disneylander (published for Disneyland cast members) notes “Holiday Land [sic] has many unique advantages. With the modern design, it is anticipated that the traditional ant and sand at a picnic will have to be brought in by the picnickers themselves. Another unique advantage that no other holiday area in the world has is immediate access to Disneyland and its may rides and wonderful free entertainment and exhibits.”
Still, the thought of the holiday season was a natural fit with the eponymous land, and artist Herb Ryman, who famously spent a weekend in 1954 with Walt producing the first sketches of Disneyland, designed a Christmas-themed entrance showcasing a 75-foot Christmas tree on a hill (probably hiding the circus tent behind it).
Herb’s holiday overlay was never produced. Very few picnics and events were held during the winter season, and in 1961, Holidayland closed. But Walt was captivated by the idea of a snow-themed hill, and turned his attention to the mound of dirt that had been built up near Fantasyland during the construction of Sleeping Beauty Castle. By 1957, just as Herb was painting his “Holiday Park Entrance,” Walt was looking at the dirt mound known as “Holiday Hill” and saying to Joe Fowler, “why don’t we make some snow and have a toboggan ride here?”
To support his vision, Park management re-dubbed the mound “Snow Hill,” and Walt’s Imagineers began trying to figure out a way to keep snow on the ground in sunny, Southern California. In his book, The Disney Mountains: Imagineering at Its Peak, author Jason Surrell recounts the story in which Walt was “sitting on a bench between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, just staring off into space. ‘What are you looking at?’ the employee asked. ‘My mountain,’ Walt replied.”
You can see it coming: by year’s end, “Snow Hill” was on the plans as “Snow Mountain,” the site of a wild bobsled ride. A few months later, Walt was on location in Switzerland during the filming of Third Man on the Mountain, and discovered exactly what “Snow Mountain” would look like: the majestic Matterhorn.
And so it is that Disneyland’s first mountainous landmark can trace a bit of its history back to the gone—but not forgotten—Holidayland.
Happy Holidays!