Credit: Erica Lauren ITMEPCOT has become the “festival” park. Most guests visiting Walt Disney World plan their trips based on which festival is happening, carefully coordinating vacation dates to coincide with specific seasonal events. The most popular festivals are the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival and the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival. The crowds during those time periods definitely prove their popularity.
Walk through World Showcase during Food & Wine in the fall, and you’ll navigate through shoulder-to-shoulder humanity clutching little plates of overpriced appetizers. Try to get a decent photo at any of the topiaries during Flower & Garden, and you’re competing with dozens of other guests doing the same thing.
There is one festival that hasn’t gotten the recognition it deserves in past years, though that seems to be changing. More guests are finally recognizing that the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays is not just underrated but actually the best festival EPCOT offers all year. It doesn’t generate the same social media buzz as Food and Wine. It doesn’t have the Instagram appeal of elaborate flower displays that Flower and Garden provides.
But what it does have is substance, variety, genuine cultural experiences, better weather than summer festivals, and an atmosphere that feels authentic rather than manufactured for tourist consumption.
The holiday festival runs from late November through the end of December. This timing alone makes it special because you’re experiencing EPCOT during what many consider the most magical time of year at Walt Disney World. But the festival itself brings so much more to the table than simply existing during a popular season.
From storytellers sharing authentic holiday traditions from around the world to spontaneous entertainment you won’t find at any other festival, from holiday kitchens serving food that’s creative and delicious, to weather that lets you enjoy everything without melting into a puddle, the Festival of the Holidays delivers on every front.
More Offerings Throughout the Park
One of the most significant advantages the Festival of the Holidays has over other EPCOT festivals is the sheer volume and variety of offerings spread throughout the entire park. Food and Wine focuses heavily on the food booths, which is fine, but creates a somewhat one-dimensional experience. Flower and Garden is gorgeous to look at, but once you’ve seen the topiaries and grabbed food from a few outdoor kitchens, you’ve mostly experienced what it offers.
The holiday festival fills the park with a multitude of experiences. There are holiday kitchens, yes, but there are also storytellers in nearly every World Showcase pavilion. There’s spontaneous entertainment happening throughout the day. There are decorations specific to each country’s holiday traditions. There are special merchandise offerings tied to authentic cultural celebrations. The festival offers a range of experiences that you can engage with at whatever level suits you.
The Glimmering Greenhouse overlay at Living with the Land is a perfect example. This beloved attraction gets a complete holiday makeover with twinkling lights, festive decorations, and seasonal touches throughout the greenhouse sections. It’s the kind of detail that shows Disney is willing to go beyond just adding food booths and calling it a festival. They’re actually enhancing the park’s existing attractions to fit the theme, creating new ways to experience familiar rides.
If you want to focus purely on food, you can do that and find excellent options. If you’re more interested in learning about how different cultures celebrate the holiday season, the storytellers and entertainment provide that. If you just want to soak in beautiful decorations and festive atmosphere, the park delivers that too. Very few guests experience everything the festival offers in a single visit, which actually makes it more worthwhile because return visits reveal new elements you missed the first time.
Storytellers Throughout World Showcase
The storytellers are perhaps the festival’s greatest strength and most underappreciated element. In nearly every World Showcase pavilion, cultural representatives share how their countries celebrate the holiday season. These aren’t actors playing characters. These are people from these countries explaining authentic traditions, answering questions, and providing insight into celebrations that most American guests have never encountered.
In the Mexico pavilion, you can learn about Las Posadas and the significance of the holiday season in Mexican culture. In Norway, storytellers explain Julenissen and Nordic holiday traditions. The United Kingdom features Father Christmas with stories of British holiday celebrations. France discusses Përe Noël and French Christmas traditions. Each pavilion offers something different, something educational, something genuinely interesting that you cannot experience at the Food and Wine Festival or Flower and Garden Festival.
These presentations occur multiple times throughout the day at scheduled intervals, allowing you to plan your World Showcase tour around catching the storytellers that interest you most. The performances are brief enough not to dominate your day, yet substantial enough to provide real value. And because most guests prioritize food over culture at EPCOT festivals, the storyteller crowds are usually manageable, allowing for better views and more opportunity to ask questions.
Spontaneous Entertainment
Beyond the scheduled storytellers, the Festival of the Holidays brings spontaneous entertainment that creates magical moments throughout your day. Musical groups perform holiday songs, such as “Joyful” and “The Jamminators.”
This spontaneous element creates an energy that other festivals lack. The Food and Wine Festival feels somewhat transactional. You move from booth to booth, order food, eat, and move to the next booth. The Flower and Garden Festival is beautiful, but it remains static. The topiaries don’t change. The flowers don’t perform. The Festival of the Holidays feels alive because there’s always something happening, always something to discover, always music drifting through the air that enhances the atmosphere.
Holiday Kitchens with Actually Good Food
Let’s be honest about EPCOT festival food. Much of it is safe, bland, and overpriced. Food and Wine has developed a reputation for serving tiny portions of mediocre food at premium prices. The Flower and Garden festival is better in terms of portions, but the prices continue to increase. The holiday kitchens differ because they serve food tied to actual holiday traditions, rather than random appetizers that loosely fit a theme.
The dishes at the holiday festival kitchens feel more thoughtful, more connected to the cultures they represent, and frankly, better executed. You’re not getting generic sliders or yet another variation on macaroni and cheese. You’re getting foods that people actually eat during holiday celebrations in these countries. The portions tend to be more generous. The flavors are bolder. The whole experience feels less like a cash grab and more like a genuine attempt to share cultural cuisine.
The Weather Actually Cooperates
Florida in late November and December is absolutely perfect. Daytime temperatures typically range from the mid-60s to mid-70s, with cool evenings that make spending hours walking around World Showcase comfortable rather than punishing. You’re not sweating through your clothes by 10 a.m. like you would during Food and Wine in September. You’re not battling afternoon thunderstorms like during Flower and Garden in the spring.
The weather during the Festival of the Holidays makes the entire experience more enjoyable. You can walk from pavilion to pavilion without needing to duck into air conditioning every 20 minutes. You can actually wear festive holiday outfits without risking heatstroke. Evening visits are pleasant rather than uncomfortably hot or unpredictably rainy. This isn’t a minor consideration. The weather significantly impacts your ability to enjoy everything the festival has to offer.
Santa Sightings and Photo Opportunities
Throughout the festival, Santa makes appearances in various locations, creating photo opportunities that extend beyond the standard character meet-and-greets. The holiday decorations throughout the park provide countless Instagram-worthy backdrops. World Showcase transforms into a photographer’s dream with each pavilion decorated according to its cultural holiday traditions.
These photo opportunities matter because they create lasting memories and shareable moments. The decorations are elaborate, thoughtful, and specific to each country rather than generic holiday fare. You’re not just getting another photo in front of Christmas lights. You’re capturing images that reflect genuine cultural celebrations from around the world.
The EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays deserves recognition as the park’s best festival. It offers more variety, better cultural experiences, superior food, perfect weather, and an atmosphere that feels authentic rather than manufactured. While Food & Wine and Flower & Garden receive all the attention, savvy guests are discovering that the holiday festival delivers everything they want from an EPCOT festival, without the overwhelming crowds (for now) and commercial feel that plague the more popular events.