Christmas is known to be one of the busiest holidays at Disney World, bringing in tons of families from all over looking to celebrate a Florida holiday. Wait times go up, Lightning Lane prices increase and sell out, and transportation lines are long — or, it used to be like this.

In the past few years, we’ve noticed that the crowds around Christmas aren’t as bad as we’re used to. That’s not saying that there is a small number of people, or that you’ll be able to walk onto any attraction you want, but the wall-to-wall people we’ve seen before? It’s not really there. Is Disney World still busy during Christmas time? Let’s find out.

During 2020, crowds were different since there was a significantly lower number of people in the parks, even during the holidays, but once Disney World was able to allow more people in, we saw a huge increase in 2021. Some people called this “revenge traveling,” and it was their way of getting back the vacation time they weren’t able to use before.

2022 and 2023 saw similar crowds. For example, the Transportation and Ticket Center, where you park to go to Magic Kingdom, used to have rows of people lined up long before park opening at 9 AM.

2023 CHRISTMAS DAY CROWDS

Here’s the same place in 2025.

2025 CHRISTMAS DAY CROWDS

This year on Christmas, the lines to get into Magic Kingdom really weren’t bad at all. It looked like a typical day in Magic Kingdom!

Main Street, U.S.A., is a great way to tell, too. Here’s a look from 2025…

…and here’s a look from 2023. 2025 was still pretty busy, but I feel like there were more people in 2023. When we captioned this photo in 2023, we said “Not TOO bad,” which means we’ve seen worse.

Y’all. This is just the line for Starbucks. FOR STARBUCKS!

Okay, that’s photo evidence, but what about the wait times? Here’s a look at the highest in 2023:

• Haunted Mansion — 65 minutes
• Jingle Cruise — 75 minutes
• Meet Ariel at her Grotto — 75 minutes (uh, why is that so long?)
• Space Mountain — 80 minutes
• Peter Pan’s Flight — 85 minutes
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train — 95 minutes

For this year:

• Jingle Cruise — 55 minutes
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh — 55 minutes
• Peter Pan’s Flight — 55 minutes
• Space Mountain — 55 minutes
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train — 60 minutes

Why is this happening? Of course, we’re not exactly sure, but some guesses we have are that everyone knows how busy Disney can be on Christmas, so they wait to go on another date. They could also be focusing on the time after Christmas and into New Year’s versus the time before. A quick check of the wait times on December 30th shows:

• Haunted Mansion — 70 minutes
• Space Mountain — 75 minutes
• Peter Pan’s Flight — 80 minutes
• Jingle Cruise — 85 minutes
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train — 95 minutes
• TRON Lightcycle / Run — 130 minutes

All of those wait times are longer than Christmas Day this year and are more similar to 2023’s Christmas. People could be waiting till after Christmas so they can still celebrate the holiday at home with their Christmas tree and presents, and then later get the Disney magic for New Year’s.

You tell us: why do you think crowds have gone down at Disney World during Christmas? Tell us in the comments, and make sure you keep following Disney Food Blog for everything Disney. We’re in the parks every day so we can give you the most accurate and up-to-date information you need before your next trip.

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