Indulge: Holiday food festivals

Image: Disney

EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival still reigns supreme over the rest of the Disney Parks foodie-friendly events, but there’s definitely a case to be made for the Festival of Holidays at Disney California Adventure and EPCOT’s World Showcase. The two are nearly identical, with a unique focus on holiday dishes around the world, from fruit and nut rugelach to chocolate Yule logs to pineapple kesari. It’s not all about the sweets, either: You’ll find plenty of savory dishes, like chana masala, pork belly adobo, and butternut squash pakora fritters, to name just a few, as well as a variety of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages.

This is arguably the best way to sample the majority of holiday foods at the parks. Since you’re not getting restaurant-sized portions with each dish, you should be able to make it through quite a few booths before you start to feel full. That said, this isn’t necessarily the cheapest method of eating your way through EPCOT (or Disney California Adventure), so if you’re planning on sampling something from each booth, it’s absolutely worth investing in a Sip and Savor pass to get the most bang for your buck.

Avoid: Seasonal churros

Image: Disney

Like Disneyland’s much-beloved beignets, churros are a classic must-have snack at just about every Disney park you can think of. The difference here, however, is that seasonal beignets have become a staple of holiday dining, while Disney’s flavored churro experiments have largely proved to be hit-or-miss over the last few months. We’ve seen everything from orange-vanilla churros to lemon churros, strawberry sugar churros, Mexican chocolate churros, and carrot cake churros. According to the Disney Parks Blog, another eight flavors are scheduled to hit stands and quick-service restaurants this fall (to say nothing of the winter holiday-themed churros that may be coming our way): orange sugar churros with candy corn dipping sauce, pumpkin spice churros with cream cheese frosting, chocolate crumble churros with marshmallow sauce, sour apple churros with caramel sauce, s’mores churros, purple sugar churros, and two different churro bites sundaes.

Given the array of cinnamon-y, non-churro options at your disposal—from cake pops to cupcakes to macarons and everything in between—don’t feel a moment of guilt if you decide to skip out on the latest trend with this snack. It’s also worth noting that plain cinnamon-sugar churros are still available during the holiday season, just in case you’re in the mood for a “normal” Disney Parks treat.

Indulge: Hand-pulled candy canes

Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)

It’s the simplest holiday dessert, but something Disneyland manages to do better than anything else on their seasonal menu. Like every other bakery item on Main Street, U.S.A., these are made fresh at the parks and, unlike every other bakery item, they’re always guaranteed to sell out. If you’ve never gotten the opportunity to compare stale peppermint sticks with giant candy canes made from scratch, now’s your chance as Disneyland celebrates its 50th straight year of creating the iconic Christmas candy.

Just a heads up: There are only two places to grab these bad boys, and that’s at Disneyland’s Candy Palace and Disney California Adventure’s Trolley Treats. (That’s right: This is a Disneyland exclusive, though Walt Disney World often has more than their fair share of scrumptious peppermint-flavored desserts to choose from.) Lest you make the mistake of thinking you can stroll up at any time during the Christmas season to pocket a few of these for your own holiday festivities, think again. They’re in such high demand that the parks often organize a wristband-only line at park opening on pre-designated dates throughout the fall and winter. The $13, 18-inch candy canes are first-come, first-serve and limited to one per person, so if you want seconds, it’s best to bring a friend.

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Of course, this only scratches the surface of the Disney Parks’ never-ending list of desserts, cocktails, and calorific holiday meals. What’s on your can’t-miss list this holiday season?