Guide to Visiting Universal During the Holidays - Opening Day of Christmas at Universal

Entrance of Universal Studios Orlando During ChristmasMegan Moves/YouTube

On November 13th, I was able to head over to the Universal Orlando Resort to see the opening day of the Holidays at Universal for this season! The opening day exhibited the new Christmas Tribute Store, Universal Holiday Parade, and Grinchmas Show!

Since I got my annual pass back in February, this was my first year getting to experience Christmas at Universal! I was very excited to check out the holiday parade as well as Grinchmas at Suess Landing!

Walking into the park, I could immediately start to see some of the Christmas decorations that were placed around the park. The lights and wreaths were beautiful!

The stores in the park also had the new holiday merch available. There was a lot of new Christmas and Grinch-themed merch available. One of my favorite items was the new Grinch Loungefly backpack! The backpack was very unique and perfectly designed for the Grinch theme! There are other Grinch-themed shirts, cups, and Santa hats that can be purchased!

New Grinch Themed Loungefly BackpackMegan Moves/YouTube

I spent the majority of my time in Universal Studios checking out the holiday decorations before the parade began at 5:30 PM. There were lots of fun holiday characters walking out around the park that guests were able to get pictures and interact with! One Universal Christmas highlight that I was really impressed with was the new Tribute Store in the park. The theming and decorating of the store were incredible and worth checking out!

At 5:30 we got a spot to watch the parade in front of the Jimmy Fallon ride. Here you are able to have a great view of the parade but also see Santa light the tree at the end of the parade! Universal did a great job on the parade and it definitely is my favorite of all the parades I have seen! The floats were very well done and the balloons were incredible!

Minion Themed Parade Float and Balloon During ParadeMegan Moves/YouTube

Immediately after the parade, we ran over to Islands of Adventure to see the last showing of the Grinchmas show. There we watched a half-hour musical of the Grinch story. The actors and actresses did a great job performing!

The rest of the evening was spent exploring the park, riding Hagrid's, then seeing the Christmas nighttime projection show on Hogwarts Castle! The projection shows are always neat to see and this holiday show was very well done! Not only does the castle get decorated by the projection show, but both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley are decorated for the holidays! Both Harry Potter Worlds are amazing, but the added decorations enhance the standard beauty of the park areas. If you are a fan of Butterbeer, be sure to check out the seasonal hot Butterbeer!

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Universal for the first time during Christmas and personally thought Universal did a great job in entertaining their guests! The parade was incredible and it was great getting to interact with characters again.

If you have the opportunity to visit Universal during the holidays, I highly recommend making a visit! Besides the standard theme park rides, there is a lot of holiday-themed experiences, food, and attractions that can be visited!