15 Teams showed up on a brisk January morning to celebrate what was left of the 2019-2020 Holiday Season at Downtown Disney on Sunday the 5th. With a few brand new teams, some brand new players related to seasoned pros, a handful of veteran teams, and one newly mastered out team, no one was completely sure just what The Event Crew had up their sleeves this year. Since this was our first time doing a Holiday-themed Challenge, we decided to shake up the formula a bit and introduce a new style of play that just might catch on in future challenges.
Teams were handed a packet that contained 9 separate challenges and one bonus. Each challenge was themed to a different holiday subject (for the most part) and was played in a different area of Downtown Disney. We included some old favorites like DINGO, Photo Challenge, and Fotoshop Frenzy along with some brand new concepts and games never attempted before. The players really seemed to love this new format, and there was quite a bit of positive feedback.
No holiday-themed challenge would be complete without Santa Claus, and our own Event Crew Member “Santa” returned to complete the holiday vibe. (Those of you who played The Quest for Disney Challenge-tacular last year may remember Santa-Thanos and his antics fondly.) Santa was in rare form this year, asking teams to tell him a joke if they wanted to record his iconic “Ho Ho Ho.” He also MC’d his own Bonus Challenge titled “Christmas Carol Caraoke,” where teams had to guess the Christmas song that was being sung or “fa-la-la’d” by one of their team mates.
Teams were able to flex their creative crafting skills as well when they were asked to take some miscellaneous items from their packet and “construct” an ornament for Santa using only items they had with them or found for free around the resort. The creativity displayed by most teams was astounding, and Santa had a very difficult time picking out his top 3 favorites.
One of the most memorable new games was titled “What I Want For Christmas…aka Johanna Describes Things Badly.” This game has teams trying their best to think like Crew Member Johanna while shopping through the World of Disney store, taking photos of things she put on her Christmas wish list. The fun continued if they found Johanna and asked her for a hint about one of the clues. Watching Johanna describe her spirit animal, the T-Rex, badly live and in person was a comedy bit unto itself. ‘
When the exhausted teams showed up to the Award Ceremony, they were quick to tell us how much fun they had and excited to hear the results. 3rd place went to The Jingle Cruisers (who absolutely won the theme award in my book, as well as scoring the highest in the singing bonus challenge.) The Hidden Minnies really stepped it up this year and took home 2nd place; their highest place to date. Our Holiday Champions and 1st place winners were TinkerBelles, taking home their 2nd Mini Challenge win and another Master Point for all 5 team members. (Plus a bonus prize sponsored by our Master Team, Frankless Weenies for building the most creative ornament.)
Once again, a HUGE thank you goes out to The Event Crew for their spectacular job putting together, testing, and facilitating this year’s Challenge. (With an EPIC thank you to Johanna and Melissa who really stepped it up this year with more administrative and field work than they have ever done!) It was awesome seeing everyone come out to celebrate the holidays with us and a happy reminder of just why we continue to put on The Disney Challenge year after year.
Keep your eyes on this page as well as Facebook for a BIG announcement about The 2020 Disney Challenge happening on June 7th!
Check out the results and answer key for The Holiday Disney Challenge here.