For the first time ever, this year Christmas arrived in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort. Previously the extent of the holidays was the Buskers at King’s Cross, sneaking in Christmas music to their normal sets.
Why Christmas never came to the Wizarding World before, I’m not really sure. Especially since the Village of Hogsmeade is covered with snow year-round. Oh well.
For their first year ever celebrating the holidays, the Wizarding World went all out. Tons of new merchandise, two new holiday versions of the stage shows, a brand new projection show, and decorations everywhere. Both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade were completely trimmed out with garlands. Hot Butterbeer also made its triumphant return, which I have never tried, but according to some of my friends, it is how they always imagined it from the books. (Darn you, dairy allergy!)
We started with Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees. In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, during Christmas at the Burrow, we learn about Molly Weasley’s favorite singer. Universal took that one little blurb and spun off a whole show from it, complete with original music and talented performers. For the holidays, Celestina and the Banshees had a whole new show, including a new wardrobe and four new original songs: “Accio Christmas”, “Nothing Like a Holiday Spell”, “My Baby Gave Me a Hippogriff for Christmas”, and “A Witch and Wizard’s Wintry Wondrous Land”. My favorite was “My Baby Gave Me a Hippogriff for Christmas”, in which Celestina is at first despairing over this strange present, but in love with her creature by the end of the song.
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Celestina and the Banshees always give a first-class performance, and this one was no different. My only slight disappointment is the regular version of the show involves picking on a muggle from the audience, and they took this part out of the show for the holidays.
The Hogwarts Express was posting a forty-minute wait so Jay and I elected to walk through City Walk. I love the train, but since I used to work there, I’ve been on it a few dozen times and don’t mind skipping the ride.
We came up through Islands of Adventure on the Jurassic Park side, which was a mistake. They had closed off the back entrance to the Wizarding World, so we had to cross the bridge over to the other side to come up on the Lost Continent side. Pretty much as soon as we got past the Hogsmeade gates, we were blocked by a wall of people. Traffic does not flow well through Hogsmeade since it bottlenecks, and they were literally only letting in as many people as the viewing area could hold at a time through.
Crowd waiting for the Magic of Christmas at Hogwarts.
I generally don’t mind crowds, until you’re boxed in where you can’t move. I got shoved like four times. Thankfully, we only had to sit through one show before we were able to move up into the viewing area.
“The Magic of Christmas at Hogwarts” is an amazing, beautiful show. It’s all over YouTube if you want to see it for yourself. We were too busy watching it to take video. The show is a little random in the choice of segments, but the music takes you right back to that feeling from the movies. I am more excited about what this could mean for the future of the Wizarding World, and future projection shows, than I was the actual show. Hopefully, we’ll see something next summer like the show Universal Hollywood had this year.
Christmas in the Wizarding World was a welcome change this year. I look forward to how they expand on it in the future! What was your favorite part?
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