The Candlelight Processional at Disneyland Park is narrated each year by a surprise special guest. This year’s event will have Brie Larson as narrator.
Brie Larson Narrating Candlelight Processional at Disneyland
The Captain Marvel star will be hosting the event at Disneyland, which runs this year December 2-3, 2023.
MiceChat shared the news after seeing Brie Larsen rehearsing prior to the event.
Disneyland’s Candlelight Processional
Brie Larson is the newest narrator to join the longstanding tradition at Disneyland Park began with Walt Disney himself. When Walt Disney was arranging a large choir for the entertainment for the 1960 Olympics with Charles Hirt, the two men conceived of an idea to expand on their annual caroling tradition in the park. To that point, choirs and carolers sang in the season, but Disney and Hirt expanded on this idea to create the first Candlelight Processional.
Disney wanted guests to be able to hear the choir on Main Street, and he wanted to be able to enjoy the music from his private apartment. To increase visibility, the men decided to have the choir stand in the formation of a “living Christmas tree” as they sang on a stage in front of the Disneyland Railroad – Main Street Station.
Actor Dennis Morgan was enlisted to narrate the Nativity story in 1961, becoming the first celebrity narrator for this event. In 1962, actress Gale Storm assumed this honor. Morgan returned to narrate for a few more years before Dick Van Dyke narrated in 1965.
Disney supported the annual event until his death in 1966, with Van Dyke’s narrated Candlelight Processional his final show before he passed. Since then, the tradition has continued at Disneyland Park with a broad spectrum of narrators including John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Rock Hudson, Dean Jones, McLean Stevenson, Paula Zahn, Lin Manuel-Miranda, Viola Davis, and dozens of other celebrity performers.
Will you be watching Brie Larson perform the Christmas story this year at Disneyland’s Candlelight Processional? Let us know in the comments.
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That’s so amazing that Brie Larson will be the narrator!
We’re going to be trying the “beyond the berm” audio-only Processional concert from outside Disneyland in the plaza since we didn’t want to pay $190+ on top of our passes to experience the show.