Last evening I stumbled upon the serendipitous event of Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Christmas tree installation. I have never, in all of my years of visiting Walt Disney World, ever seen resort holiday decorations being put up, so it was fun to sit back and watch this spectacle. Of course, it’s easy to assume these overnight transformations happen by magic and pixie dust alone, but as I learned last night, it’s actually a huge, multi-cast member operation full of semi-trucks, cranes, ladders and patience!
Below is a slideshow of last night’s events, which continued into the wee hours of the morning. The whole operation began a little after 11pm and I stayed to witness it through 2am, when there was still quite a bit left to assemble on the tree, but so much had already been pixie dusted too. Enjoy the photos of the process!
Click any photo to view as a slideshow:
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- Outside wreaths are installed
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- The “before” – setting the stage for the Christmas tree installation
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- Boxes of wreaths and tree limbs arrive in the lobby
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- Wreaths are brought up to higher floors too
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- Smaller trees are brought in and the floor is protected for the cranes to come in
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- A wreath awaits installation
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- More tree parts – look, the famous tee pees!
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- Close-up of the tee pee ornaments
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- Unwrapping tree parts
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- A large wreath is installed over the lobby fireplace
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- A crane is brought in to hang a chain from the ceiling to support the tree
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- The wreath on the fireplace installed
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- Garland installed on every other floor
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- The crane goes up almost to the ceiling
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- More installation preparation
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- The first parts of the tree are installed
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- THEY use antlers in all of their decorating too!
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- Raising the tree
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- Assessing the situation
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- The lights in one section are briefly turned on
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- Ready to be raised higher
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- More sections of the tree stand are installed
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- More decorations waiting to get installed
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- Another view of the tree being installed
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- Some deer await their new home
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- The Bear family is back in place, waiting to be lit up
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- The tree is raised up to get more branches installed
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- I couldn’t stay until they were done, but here’s a gorgeous photo of the finished lobby from the talented Tom Bricker.
More photos like the last one may be found at Tom Bricker’s site DisneyTouristBlog or on his Flickr account.
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