We are quickly closing on spooky season at the Disneyland Resort. The Resort has indicated on August 15, 2022 that Haunted Mansion will close for refurbishment, which will be for the Nightmare Before Christmas holiday overlay.
The attraction will reopen as the Haunted Mansion Holiday on September 2, 2022. The overlay returned last year after a year hiatus due to the resort’s shutdown as the pandemic swept the world. The annual holiday offering at Disneyland combines The Haunted Mansion attraction with characters from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and has been held every year since 2001.
Haunted Mansion Holiday opened October 3, 2001, and quickly became popular with guests, leading to the attraction’s FastPass machines being activated during the overlay (they are now always active). On September 13, 2013 (Friday the 13th), the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland opened to the public outfitted with new effects and set pieces in celebration of its 13th year.
The Haunted Mansion Holiday takes place shortly after the events of the film it conjoins with, The Nightmare Before Christmas, where Jack Skellington, who tried to create his very own twisted Christmas in a Halloween-style overlay in the movie, now discovers the Haunted Mansion, home to 999 Happy Haunts. Deciding to spread joy to the mansion’s gloomy residents for the holidays, Jack and his creepy crew from Halloween Town bring hundreds of Jack’s original evil Christmas presents and decorations to the manor and deck the haunting grounds for a thrilling and chilling holiday for the Grim Grinning Ghosts inhabiting the abandoned house, setting the stage for the ride itself.
Check out our interview with Garner Holt, the man behind all the Haunted Mansion Holiday animatronics.
