At this point, as we move through the holiday season, I can't believe that we're almost up into the second week of December.

It's going to be a quick walk up to the holidays this year.

This coming Sunday, I'll be back with a new episode that explores the news from the Disney Company

and what it means for the future of films and the parks.

But today, I'd like to take all of us back to

1955 to Disneyland's first Christmas. And to go along with this, I have some home movie footage

from four different families that I've cut together so you can see over on YouTube what Disneyland as a

five-month-old park looked like for its first holiday season, including some rare shots of the

park's big event that year, which was the Mickey Mouse Club circus. But by talking about that there,

I'm already getting into the story for today's episode.

Disneyland's first Christmas is nothing like the holidays today in the park.

And the story of that first unusual holiday season is the subject for our episode today.

In its first year, the Christmas festivities at Disneyland featured carolers on Main Street.

School and church choirs sang at the bandstand located just off the hub, renamed for the season as the Christmas Bowl.

Local school bands marched down Main Street playing holiday tunes. The park added decorations, but the decorations were sparse by

today's standards. Green wreaths and bows were added to the front of the castle. A freshly cut

evergreen was placed in the center of the hub. Artificial white trees rose up around the

bandstand, garland was draped across the frontier land entrance sign. Natural reeds were hung

on many doors on Main Street, light strings were nailed up in select areas of the park, and

according to one local paper, a, quote, sparkling Christmas tree was placed aboard the stern-wheeler

Mark Twain. Though to be honest, I've never seen a photo of this particular Christmas tree.

But the big Christmas story for Disneyland's first year didn't involve traditional seasonal celebrations,

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