2024 Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade Changes

We’ll get to the soundtrack changes in a bit, but first lets run through the parade, unit by unit, to see what has changed visually before we tune our ears to hear what has changed as well.

The first thing that we’ll notice is that the parade now has a banner. I’m not sure how I feel about it given that the Halloween parade “Boo-To-You” has a physical sign. I’d imagine that the parade will be replaced before it gets a similar sign. We’ll have to keep an eye out in 2025.

Otherwise, the parade starts with the same cast of characters dancing in front of the Christmas tree float with Mickey and Minnie on the float itself.

Skaters kick off the next unit, which is themed to Frozen and features Olaf, returning to a familiar cottage float.

We see our first real noticeable change in terms of costuming and parade supporting character changes with the on-foot performers following Olaf. In terms of characters, we still see Anna and Kristof, but instead of dancing ice harvesters, we see villagers dressed in their holiday best, carrying presents and stick handbells.

Anna and Elsa are also wearing updated costumes this year to match the updated costumes that they wear in the Frozen Holiday Surprise Cinderella Castle “lighting” show.

Somehow, Vanellope von Schweetz has returned. Last year, we noted that Vanellope was on a sort of IP island following the removal of Wreck-It Ralph from the gingerbread house. We thought that Disney might remove her from the 2024 version of the parade, but she continues to drive her gingerbread car along the parade route.

The baked goods section continues with the return of the gingerbread men and Clarice.

Goofy returns, along with the candy cane twirlers.

A minor change for the Seven Dwarfs, who are now sporting scarves in addition to their green hats. Oddly enough, the Seven Dwarfs are no longer meeting at the party this year.

We didn’t notice any other changes until the Santa’s Workshop section of the parade and new costumes for the stuffed bears.

Speaking of Santa’s Workshop, the float with a toy soldier on top has been removed from the parade, and instead, the Green Army Men follow the stuffed bears directly.

The Green Army Men have seen a very slight change of their own, with the marching recruits now behind the car.

The next change is the removal of Luxo balls from the Toy Story unit, replaced by gold and red balls that sort of look like ornaments.

A change to the Toy Story float sees Woody removed from the driving position and replaced by an elf-like character. Bo Peep has been removed from the 2024 version of the parade.

Marching toy soldiers are back, but still not musically inclined, which may be a thing of the past at this point.

Santa and his reindeer are the final float for the parade!

VIDEO: Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade with New Soundtrack

With the photos out of the way, let’s turn our attention to our full parade video, featuring a new soundtrack this year. Longtime fans of the parade will still hear the classic “Once Upon a Christmastime” song woven throughout the new music, but infusions of new and classic songs have been added to the various parade units. The parade now leans into songs from The Nutcracker, along with some IP holiday songs from Disney’s own library. Here’s a rundown of what’s new!

• Parade Opening | “From All of Us to All of You” from a Disney show of the same name
• Frozen | “That Time of Year” from Olaf’s Frozen Adventure
• Sweets and Treats | Custom version of “Sugarplum Fairy” from The Nutcracker
• Princesses | “Waltz of the Flowers” from The Nutcracker, and “The Holly and the Ivy”
• Santa’s Workshop | “Up On The Housetop”, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, “Waltz of the Flowers”

Along with the change in soundtrack comes an update and change to some of the choreography as well.