Thank you! This is great info!
We’ve stayed at Thunderbird and Castaway so far, poolside both times, maybe we’ll just do the same again. We like the convenience to the walking trail.
Depending on how long you're planning on staying, we had a couple earlier nights in where we got some seasonal hot drinks at Starbucks and went over by the fire pits. We had also done a small grocery run and picked up some eggnog and a couple seasonal goodies at the store and watched some of the Christmas movies on the TV in our room. It actually was a lot of fun to just slow down and do that on vacation. It made it feel special.
We fit in some time to do some of the 'free' Disney Christmas stuff too. We went over and did the Christmas Tree Trail at Disney Springs one day and then another parked at the TTC and then resort hopped all day to look at the Christmas decorations and gingerbread displays just using the Disney transportation. We did the resorts on the monorail and then took the boat to Wilderness Lodge and then the bus to HS and the boat over to the BW (and then I think we took the bus to MK and then the ferry back TTC). Anyway, it was a nice Christmas day too even though we were doing at USO vacation that time. We also went and did Santa's Winter Summerland mini putt one afternoon.
And, if you weren't aware there's a Grinch breakfast at IOA that's supposed to be quite good. The Grinch in the musical presentation was fantastic. And we had actually contacted the USO chef regarding the breakfast's ability to accommodate allegeries/dining restrictions and we were pretty happy with the list of options they were able to accommodate. We felt it was a little pricey, though. But after seeing the Grinch musical last year -- we'd consider going if we do a December USO in the future as he seemed quite fun and it did sound like they could accommodate a diet reasonably well. But it's definitely a splurge activity on a splurge holiday.
Getting warm butter beer in Harry Potter is a bit of a treat too (especially if it's cold). We weren't that impressed with their Christmastime holiday light projection show on the castle, though. It was our least favorite of the holiday offerings.
The street performers have holiday adjustments for the holidays too. We caught the Blues Brothers show and it was fun. But there's adjustments to the Harry Potter shows and we didn't see either of them. MORE FOR ANOTHER TIME!
There's lots of little ways to adjust the time in the parks and at the hotel/resort to make it special and your own. You could try calling CBBR directly (likely closer to the holiday) and they might be able to tell you any special plans for activities. Same with the other hotels -- depending on how old your kids are. I think there's some craft and gingerbread/cookie decorating type activities if you're there in the week or so right around the holidays.
But if you're staying in one of the suites, there's definitely enough space that you could pick up some craft kits and/or cookie decorating kits from elsewhere and/or bring them with you and have a family Christmas night in one night too. Honestly, as cheesy (and maybe as silly) as it is to have a Christmas movie night while on a vacation in Orlando, there was something really fun and really special that stands out about having those nights in both years to watch those movies together in the hotel while on holiday (similarly with the Winter Summerland Mini Putt, if you've never done that one before. It was a whole lot of fun to do in the weeks leading up to Christmas for our family. Really unique).
Have a great trip!