#25: Disneyland added a new night event over the holiday season, titled “Merriest Nites.” This special event featured six distinct parties that have unique music, food, and character interactions. Even the infamous Muppet did a holiday show filled with their classic antics. Host Stef attended with her family, sharing with Ariel the tips, tricks, ups, and downs of navigating such an ambitious event.

Read the blog post for this episode for additional references and resources.

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

Ariel Landrum 0:03
Hello everyone, welcome to The Happiest Pod On Earth. I am Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:08
And I’m Stef, and we are Disney fans. But we are really so much more than that.

Ariel Landrum 0:12
Like I’m a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental and wellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:18
And I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them. Here at Happiest Pod, it’s a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Ariel Landrum 0:29
Why? Because just like we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume. So what Disney medium or experience are we dissecting today’s Stef?

Stefanie Bautista 0:38
Well, it’s been a while. So we are going to dissect my experience at Marriest Nites’ Queue Jingle Bells.

Ariel Landrum 0:48
ding ding ding

Stefanie Bautista 0:49
Last time we spoke to you all it was spooky season and now it is holiday season. I feel like and I don’t know about you, Ariel, but the holiday season has come at us in full force.

Ariel Landrum 1:00
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01
I’ll be earlier than previous years because I think people are really excited to just celebrate merriness and being together as much as possible. I don’t know. What do you think?

Ariel Landrum 1:13
Yes, I, I vividly remember Christmas last year for me because I spent it locked in my room because my roommate had COVID. And I was helping care for them. And of course, if I was potentially exposed, I didn’t want to obviously give it to any of my family members and usually spend Christmas with my grandmother who would be individual who’d be highly susceptible. And if everyone remembers the vaccine did not exist then. So these symptoms were bad for my roommate and the isolation was, was pretty, pretty difficult.

Stefanie Bautista 1:46
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:47
I didn’t even decorate. It did not feel like the holidays. I don’t I didn’t watch Christmas movies that whole month. I don’t remember doing any holiday traditions like even driving around and looking at lights. Like it, it was his full force pandemic. And I would say that was one of the bigger peaks. And so it was just a lot of isolating.

Stefanie Bautista 2:06
Yeah, I mean, for me, it was a lot of Christmas dinners were outside. And there were only two. The one at my house and the one at my in law’s house. And aside from that, I mean, there was no dressing up, there was no taking pictures, there was really not a lot of even gift giving. A lot of the gifts that we received were virtual gifts, or were just delivered via Amazon package. And so I mean, because the whole year we were getting packages, it didn’t seem any special. No special gift wrapping through Amazon, none of that. It just literally was like another delivery, more baby things. But yeah, I totally agree that this holiday season is just everybody’s getting like their holiday wiggles out. That’s very elementary school of me to say, but we’ve been holding it in for so long. And no matter if you celebrate, you know, Christmas or Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah, or any other holiday that you may celebrate during this time. Everybody’s just really excited to be out. And, you know, I’ll be it, we are in a sticky situation right now with the new variant. People are just really trying to make the most of it.

Ariel Landrum 3:15
Even in thinking about the holiday differences from last year to this year. We all know in general that Christmas has been trying to take over since July like right like if it wasn’t for Halloween, which holds the line the Goths hold the line.

Stefanie Bautista 3:30
They really do.

Ariel Landrum 3:31
Christmas would be way, way, way sooner.

Stefanie Bautista 3:34
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 3:35
I remember being irritated by that. I think this year I was I just I needed it. I really wanted it back I had this this sense of like, I I’m really looking forward to feeling like I’ve celebrated the entire year. Like I’ve done my like the whole circle around completion feeling and wanting to wanting to do a resolution want, you know, wanting and hoping and feeling that sense of wonderment again.

Stefanie Bautista 4:02
Yeah, we put up our Christmas lights so fast. Like I think we had half of our inflatables up the night of Thanksgiving which was wild. And I mean also like the kids like they at my school they were talking about you know holiday plans and like you know finally getting to see the grandparents and things like that so I think it wasn’t just you know, they wanted to you know, do those things like Christmas last Christmas traditions they were just really excited to connect again. And in by connecting you know, give gifts to their fellow classmates give gifts to their teachers. I have not seen my coworkers walk away with so many gifts in my life which thank you to everybody who you know you’re appreciating your educators because they are still working around the clock.

Ariel Landrum 4:51
Hmm hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 4:52
They are trying to accommodate and you know, catch up from the last year but it was like they were all their own mini Santos walking out of the building. Huge like bags on bags and like coffee mugs galore. Because ya’ll like to give educators coffee mugs. I got two. And they are living now in my office because I know better than to bring them home with me. Yeah, it does just the spirit all around. But in that we are going to talk about Merriest Nites, which is the Disneyland equivalent to Oogie Boogie Bash, which happens during Halloween. We went early. We went during December 11.

And by we will clarify this stuff. Yes. I have never been to Merriest Nites. I don’t even know what it is.

It’s new this year.

Ariel Landrum 5:36
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 5:36
Yeah, this is the first time they’re doing it.

Ariel Landrum 5:38
I have gone to Disneyland with STef in the winter around Christmas time. We do have some really bomb photos. I consider them bomb in front of the castle when it’s lit up. Snowy, pretty. But I myself have never gone to any sort of Disney holiday event. I haven’t done the Oogie Boogie bash. I haven’t done any of those things have done the food events. But that’s over at California Adventure.

Stefanie Bautista 6:02
Yes. And there’s a reason why you haven’t been to this one because it is new this year. And because I have never been to Ogee Boogie bash myself because I can never remember to get tickets, or I just missed the window or something. When I heard about Merriest Nites, I’m like, I need to get on this now. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I’m gonna get my frickin ticket right now. Because I love me some Christmas. I love me some holiday. So when...