Join me for a look at the holiday decorations for this popular attraction, with my photos from 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Jack Skellington sits atop a big jack o' lantern to beckon park visitors
into the Haunted Mansion Holiday in this 2003 photo.
All upstairs railings are decorated with candles, and the spooky skull
wreaths hang along the awnings in this 2003 photo.
Even the overcast skies cooperate to add a sense of gloomy foreboding
at the Haunted Mansion, with the only colors being the multiple jack o'lanterns
placed atop the mansion. Do note, however, that one of them is wearing
a Santa hat in this 2003 overlay.
The countdown clock looms over the front of the mansion. The candleholders,
made of black wrought iron, look like a spider web in this 2002 photo.
The Haunted Mansion Holiday takes on a wholly different look at night,
when the mansion is lit up with the orange glow of candlelight.
The horseless carriage hearse looks particularly festive this time of
year.
Barbed wire strewn across the jack o'lantern ensures that no park guests
accidentally try to decide to take the decoration home in this 2004 photo.
The lamp posts along the Haunted Mansion Holiday queue are decorated with lyrics
for various “scarols”—“holiday” tunes—such as “The 13 Days of Christmas,”
which celebrates the various gifts a “ghoul love” gives.
The ride loading area in Haunted Mansion Holiday provides a first full
look at the many cast of characters from Nightmare Before Christmas.
One of the largest effects in the interior of Haunted Mansion Holiday,
this hill of jack o'lanterns appears as the first item you see in the
Graveyard Scene (the last room in the ride).
The cemetery caretaker, normally stationed at the bottom of the hill at
the start of the Graveyard Scene, was one of the featured items during a special
Haunted Mansion exhibit in the Disney Gallery in 2003.
In the place of the caretaker, the location is taken over by Jack Skellington
(dressed as Sandy Claws), and his ghost dog, Zero.
The area after the Graveyard Scene—where the three hitchhiking ghosts
normally try to follow you home—is converted every year so that someone
from Nightmare Before Christmas can bid you farewell. In 2002,
they were Lock, Shock, and Barrel from the movie (and lots of lively gifts).
(Send an email to Frank Anzalone)
Frank is a mild-mannered marketing/advertising photographer by day, but his true passion is his professional band, Sage. His web site, mckyfoto.com, sports an impressive collection of Disney photos from his period as an official photographer for Disney Magazine. Frank has also published a book, "Images and Art of Santana Row", a coffee table style picture book of the grand new lifestyle shopping and entertainment destination in San Jose, CA.
Frank shot all of the photos for this article with Nikon camera gear. (Nikon D2x and D80 digital cameras with 18-55 zoom, 24-200 zoom and 80-400 zoom lenses, and a Nikon SB 800 flash for fill light).
Frank lives in Northern California with his wife, Karen. Premier annual passholders to both Disneyland Resort and WDW Resort, the Anzalones visit Disneyland and WDW as time permits in their busy schedule.
