Halloween and Christmas collide once again at Disneyland Park as Haunted Mansion Holiday returns, transforming the iconic Haunted Mansion into a macabre festive experience inspired by Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas

During Halloween Time and the Holidays at the Disneyland Resort, Jack Skellington takes over the mansion, dressing as “Santa Jack” and filling the attraction with eerie seasonal décor, supernatural surprises and plenty of festive frights.

This year marks a special milestone for the attraction, with Haunted Mansion Holiday celebrating 25 years of its showstopping gingerbread creations.

For 2026, guests will discover a giant gingerbread music box standing more than 10 feet tall in the mansion’s Grand Hall. Complete with grinding gears, turning tines and intricate festive details, the enormous confectionery creation comes to life as its “Santa Jack” key turns.

The music box plays a haunting rendition of a beloved holiday classic before its roof lifts to reveal a skeletal surprise in true Haunted Mansion fashion.

The giant gingerbread creation is just one of the many details that make the seasonal transformation a major attraction for visitors.

Haunting highlights from Haunted Mansion Holiday

  • 400+ candles: More than 400 flickering candles illuminate the façade, alongside more than 100 jack-o’-lanterns.
  • An animated Jack and Zero: Guests travelling through the “stretching” room can see Jack Skellington and his ghost dog Zero appear in a fully animated sequence. Zero also makes surprise appearances among the changing portraits in the gallery corridor.
  • A Disney family legacy: Disney Legend and former Executive Creative Director at Walt Disney Imagineering Kim Irvine portrays Madame Leota, continuing the role originated by her mother, Disney Legend and longtime Imagineer Leota Toombs.
  • 13 spooky gifts: In the Séance Room, Madame Leota’s “13 Days of Christmas” are represented through 13 spinning fortune cards featuring a series of supernatural gifts.
  • A team effort: Each year’s gingerbread house is created through collaboration between carpenters, storytellers, pastry chefs, bakers, confectionery specialists and technical teams, with the finished creation filling the Grand Hall with the irresistible scent of gingerbread.
  • A snowy graveyard: Nearly 7,500 square feet of artificial snow blankets the graveyard, accompanied by almost 1,000 tiny orange lights decorating the trees.
  • More animated surprises: More than two dozen additional animated figures appear throughout the attraction, including man-eating wreaths and vampire teddy bears.

The annual transformation demonstrates how seasonal theming can give an established attraction a completely new identity, combining familiar Haunted Mansion storytelling with the distinctive characters and visual style of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Guests visiting Disneyland Resort can check Disneyland.com or the Disneyland app on the day of their visit for information about accessing Haunted Mansion Holiday.

For more information, visit https://www.disneyworld.co.uk

For more stories from Park World, visit https://parkworld-online.com