Christmas at Walt Disney World (1978)

Christmas at Walt Disney World was a 1978 Christmas special that aired on NBC and used the still recently opened theme park as a backdrop for this variety special format program. Similar TV specials with the variety show performance format were the only kinds of new episodes being filmed in the parks at the time. A Christmas in Disneyland special had been produced two years prior and some view Christmas at Walt Disney World as a companion piece to that. There is no over all plot to these shows. They just showcase then contemporary talents performing in the parks. In this case, it's made up of different segments with a Christmas theme.

Many of these focus on the husband and wife mime team Robert Shields and Lorene Yarnell. They had met on a Sid and Marty Kroft production, married, and quickly became a popular act at the time who appeared on several TV shows in the 1970’s. They divorced in 1986 but still periodically continued to perform together. Shields went on to be Director of Clowning for the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus while Yarnell was the live actress for Dot Matrix in Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs.

Pop/Rock band Pablo Cruise performs a song.

Popular comedian Phyllis Diller appears in a segment inspired by Cinderella. She was in a lot of variety shows in the 60’s and 70’s often referencing her fictional husband "Fang." She went on to portray the Queen in Disney/Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. Child actress Danielle Spencer appears in this segment. She was a co-star on the ABC sitcom What's Happening!!

Sterling Holloway narrates an adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. He had been in several Walt Disney animated productions as a narrator but is perhaps best known as the original voice of Winnie the Pooh. This was one of his final performances for Walt Disney Productions before his retirement.

Comedian Avery Schreiber portrays Geppetto. He’d been part of the comedy team Burns and Schreiber with comedian Jack Burns. Burns was Don Knotts' replacement on the Andy Griffith Show and was co-creator of The Muppet Show. Shchreiber was often in Burns' projects and for decades he appeared on a lot of different TV shows for both children and adults. Children of the 1990's may best remember him as the grandfather in the Hanna-Barbera series Wake, Rattle, & Roll (later reran as Jump, Rattle, & Roll.)

Broadway actress Andrea McArdle is the showcase in the final sequence of this special and that sequence really makes the whole thing. McArdle originated the role of Annie on Broadway the year before and has enjoyed a robust Broadway career. In this special’s grand finale she joins the Walt Disney characters in singing several Christian hymns referencing Christ which is something we would never seen done today.

Christmas at Walt Disney World is a snapshot of what the park was like shortly after opening and enjoyed an afterlife being rerun on the Disney Channel until the late 1990’s. In fact, for the first few years of that network, it was part of its annual Christmas eve broadcast evening. It was never released to VHS or DVD and hasn’t been seen on TV in over two decades. This is an important record of Walt Disney history demonstrating how Walt Disney Productions continued to adhere to Walt and Roy's values after both were gone (their widows were still around.)

Original airdate December 10, 1978

Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.