By Sarah Sterling

Dust off those cobwebs and throw away your jack-o-lanterns, because Halloween is over and the winter holiday season is about to begin! It’s one of the best times of the year for Disney fans—with seasonal additions to the Disney Parks, new movie releases, and so much festive enchantment to enjoy! We here at D23: The Official Disney Fan Club have lots of Disney holiday traditions and, at Wednesday night’s BoxLunch Gala honoring Feeding America, we had a chance to ask some of your favorite Disney stars what their Disney traditions are!

With overlays like Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland Resort; special events like “Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party” at Walt Disney World; and seemingly endless treats, characters, and entertainment to enjoy, we agree with West Side Story’s Isabella Ward that the Disney Parks are a great place to make holiday memories! “I grew up in Florida, so we would always go to Walt Disney World during Christmastime,” she explained, “and see all the snow and the fireworks and do the whole thing! So, my tradition is definitely Walt Disney World—going to the Parks!”

If you prefer to cozy up at home for the holidays, your traditions might match up with Shang-Chi himself, Simu Liu. “The Santa Clause!” Liu exclaimed when we asked him his favorite Disney holiday movie; “I watch The Santa Clause every year.” Liu will serve as the 2022 BoxLunch Giving Ambassador and, later in the evening, he matched a $100,000 donation for Feeding America—bringing the total up to $200K to provide food to people in need through a nationwide network of local food banks.

Bret Iwan, the official voice of Mickey Mouse, has a similar tradition. “Every Christmas I have to watch Mickey’s Christmas Carol. I remember waiting for it on ABC every Christmas season and when it would finally come on, we’d sit down as a family and watch it.” Iwan has voiced Mickey Mouse for over a decade, inheriting the role from Disney Legend Wayne Allwine in 2009. On November 28, you can hear Iwan as Mickey in a brand-new holiday special, Mickey Saves Christmas—debuting on Disney+; “I’m hoping [this] becomes a new Christmas tradition for families to watch,” he admitted.

Christmas is totally paw-some for WandaVision’s Emma Caulfield Ford: “My daughter really loves Santa Buddies. That’s really the tradition for us.” But Caulfield Ford’s own taste in Christmas movies skews a bit more adult, while still staying within the worlds of Disney. “My Christmas films are, you know, like Die Hard,” she revealed. “That’s the all-time Christmas movie—let’s be honest!” Meanwhile, Marvel darling Xochitl Gomez might need some help; when asked if she has any annual Disney holiday traditions, she said, “Not really, but I should probably make one now that I’m in this world!” However, Gomez explained that—in terms of movies she watches on repeat—Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is “on loop at this point,” no matter the time of year.

What are your Disney holiday traditions? Follow D23 on social media and let us know how you celebrate!

Don’t you want to know who Simu Liu’s Disney character crush is? Be sure to follow D23 on TikTok for more highlights from the 2022 BoxLunch Gala and exciting celebrity interviews… and keep an eye on D23.com for the latest Disney news.

By Andie Hagemann

From sleepover shenanigans to holiday hijinks, you won’t want to miss all the electrifying content debuting on your TV (and assorted streaming devices) this weekend. Warm up your singing voices because the sing-along version of Mary Poppins Returns premieres Friday on Disney+, while a brand-new episode of Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends airs on Disney Channel and Disney Junior. On Saturday, a new episode of Hamster & Gretel debuts on Disney Channel. Last but not least, on Sunday, don’t miss new episodes of America’s Funniest Home Videos and Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, both airing on ABC.

Mary Poppins Returns (Sing-Along Version)—Friday, November 11, on Disney+
Now an adult with three children, Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) learns that his house will be repossessed in five days unless he can pay back a loan. His only chance at salvation is to find a missing document certifying the shares his father left him. However, Michael and his sister, Jane (Emily Mortimer), receive the surprise of a lifetime when their former nanny, Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt), arrives to save the day and take the Banks family on a magical adventure. The film’s star-studded cast includes Lin-Manuel Miranda, Julie Walters, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, and Disney Legends Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury. And now, you can sing along to all the toe-tapping musical numbers!

Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends—Friday, November 11, at 8:30 a.m. ET/PT on Disney Channel and 12:30 p.m. ET/PT on Disney Junior
This brand-new holiday-themed episode features not one but two festive stories! In “Halted Holiday,” all roads to the city are block on Thanksgiving Day and Team Spidey—Spider-Man/Peter Parker (voiced by Benjamin Valic), Spider-Man/Spin/Miles Morales (voiced by Jakari Fraser), and Ghost-Spider/Gwen Stacy (voiced by Lily Sanfelippo)—helps clear the traffic. Scott Porter guest stars as Gwen’s dad, George Stacy. Then, in “Merry Spidey Christmas,” Team Spidey uses their Glow Webs to save Christmas after baddies try to ruin all the holiday fun. This story includes the rockin’ new original song “Merry Spidey Christmas,” written and performed by the series’ songwriter and composer, Patrick Stump.

Hamster & Gretel—Saturday, November 12, at 9:30 a.m. ET/PT on Disney Channel
First, in “Grounded,” a meat monster takes over the city, but its pint-sized super hero is grounded. Can Gretel (voiced by Meli Povenmire) elude her punishment to save her town? Then, in “Sleepover with the Enemy,” Gretel becomes suspicious of a new student in her class. Is her gut instinct correct?

America’s Funniest Home Videos—Sunday, November 13, at 7 p.m. ET/PT on ABC
Hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro, this all-new episode is chock-full of hilarity including kids who don’t understand old technology or how to insert a letter into a public mailbox. Meanwhile, it’s a whodunit when twins blame each other for flooding a bathroom.

Celebrity Wheel of Fortune—Sunday, November 13, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC
Big money is in store for this next group of funny celebrities competing for their selected charities! This week’s episode includes actor Paul Scheer, playing for SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition; comedian Luenell, playing for Make-A-Wish®; and actress Mary Lynn Rajskub, playing for Harvest Home L.A.

By the D23 Team

Native American Heritage Month celebrates the incredible contributions of diverse Native American and Alaska Native communities to U.S. history and culture. And speaking of culture, one way The Walt Disney Company has been expanding its own content is to make more of it available to Native American communities by offering films dubbed in several Native American languages.

If you’re looking for a way to celebrate Native American Heritage Month in the comfort of your own home (or anywhere you can take a favorite streaming device!), here are several dubbed films currently available to stream—on either Disney+ or Hulu—and some interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits on how each dubbed version came to be:

Bambi in Arapaho on Disney+
Disney’s 1942 animated classic was first dubbed in Arapaho in the early 1990s, when this language had had approximately 1,000 speakers. Unfortunately, there are now fewer than 60 speakers—so the film is a helpful way to preserve the language. The process was initially driven by Dr. Neyooxet Greymorning, currently a professor at the University of Montana.

When the dubbed version of the film was recently added to Disney+, the folks at Walt Disney Studios Mastering made extra sure the physical film was in good working condition, ready to be digitally mastered for streaming use. You can find the Arapaho version as a bonus feature on the streaming service.

Star Wars: A New Hope in Navajo on Disney+
This version of Disney Legend George Lucas’ 1977 blockbuster, the first of its kind, came about in 2013—and it’s all thanks to Star Warsfan Manuelito Wheeler, who emailed and called Lucasfilm consistently over a 16-year period to see if they’d be interested in making a Navajo-language dub of the film. His amazing persistence paid off; as he told our friends at StarWars.com in 2021, “This project, it welcomed Native people to be part of the Star Wars universe… Now, our Navajo young people just have this attitude of like, ‘Oh wow, cool.’ They’re excited about it. ‘Yeah! That’s what we do now. We can do it.’ Star Wars has the ability to do something like that.”

Look for the dubbed version of the film as a bonus feature on Disney+.

Finding Nemo in Navajo on Disney+
This 2003 Disney and Pixar animated hit was Disney’s second film to be dubbed in Navajo, in 2016—and, like Star Wars: A New Hope, exclusively features members of the Navajo Nation who’d never worked as actors before! Alongside Navajo linguists, the cast worked with Rick Dempsey, senior vice president of Disney Character Voices, to bring their roles to life.

This version of the film also features an original song by Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump—who is not Native American, but who sang the song in phoneticallyNavajo. Find this version as a bonus feature on Disney+.

Prey in Comanche on Hulu in the U.S. / on Disney+ and Star+ internationally
This 2022 release from 20th Century Studios—the newest entry in the Predator film franchise—has the distinction of having its Comanche dub recorded by its original cast… who all learned their lines in multiple languages for just this reason. Jhane Myers, Prey’s executive producer, is Comanche (and Blackfeet) herself, and she spoke frequently of the importance of authenticity in the runup to the film’s release: “I’ve never seen a feature fully in my language,” Myers said at the time. “And one thing we do as Native people when we watch films, we watch to see if they can get one or two things right… For me to have the language in there, that was most important—and we pitched it that way to the studio.”

You can find the dubbed version of Prey on Hulu (on its own tab on the “details” page), and as a bonus feature on Star+ in Latin-American countries and Disney+ (Star) elsewhere internationally.