I listen to many a podcast and read many posts on boards where people are looking for ways to add a little something extra special to their vacation. Often times this is because the person is celebrating something special, such as a birthday or anniversary. Other times people may want to bring some of the holiday fun they enjoy at home to their vacation spot in Disney World. I had such an occasion on a recent vacation with my son and husband, as my son was turning 4 years old. I felt that this year, my son was old enough to appreciate the celebrations that surround a birthday and wanted to do something special for him. Also being aware of his young age, I wanted this something to be inexpensive, yet memorable.
So, after long and hard thought, I remembered in trips past my son’s squeal of delight as we passed various room’s window decorations. We had seen many variations of these decorations including windows decorated with the room towel “pets” left for the guests by the cleaning crew, stuffed animals, figurines, and on and on. He would get so excited about particular windows that we had to walk certain courses so we could pass those windows again and again! Wanting to take part in this fun as a birthday surprise, I decided to amp up my approach and use lights and photographs! I went through all of our photographs from past Disney vacations and found just the right ones for the window.
After getting settled in at the hotel, I send my husband and son out for a “walk,” and I began to decorate as quickly as possible. Once I had completed the decorations, I called my husband and told him it was safe to return. When they approached, my son yelled, “Is that for me?!” It really was so adorable! He was so excited to see that he had his very own window decorated! And to even better the surprise, I had brought pages for him to color and later add to spots I had left open just for those colored pictures. He added some of his stuffed animals, and it was complete!
This really is a great way to create a memory specific to you and your family! Look around next time you are there at your Walt Disney Resort and notice all of the great decorations in the windows! These decorations are often seasonal and can include such things as holiday trees, wedding photos and even Mickey Mouse! It really is a lot of fun decorating the windows. Try it sometime, you just may want to add this to your Disney World Resort vacation tradition!
Contributed by: Natalie H. (NDM #268). Natalie is the Natalie is the (NDM #268). Natalie is the Natalie is the Disney Driven Life’s resident resort expert.
Natalie grew up in Nashville, TN. Married with one son, she lives on a farm. As if this weren’t enough to keep her on her toes, Natalie also works around the clock due to being self-employed .
Natalie often travels to both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, giving her a vast knowledge of the Disney Resorts which she shares in her posts on The Disney Driven Life. She loves the research on the resorts and appreciates input for these articles as well.
In recent trips, Natalie has begun making a habit of meeting people while in the parks. This habit inspired her personal website, Meet the Magic, http://meetthemagic.com. This site helps her connect to others as well as hold space for Disney fans to post information about their Disney related sites. Her goal with this venture is to help people to “Meet the Magic” of their choice.
Last year during “2009 Reunion” Cheryl and I decorated our room window at Pop Century resort. We actually had compliments on it, and one person actually took her daughter to go see it after I tweeted it out. It’s a great thing to do.
I think Chery was looking to you to send me a photo of that for this article:) Could have been so beautiful!
Oh? She never mentioned it, sorry.
We have photos from our first trip to Pop Century of some windows. For some reason, I had never read about people decorating them. We took walks and kept seeing different themes. So much fun and a great way to get the kids involved too.
We always decorate the windows and it’s very funny to look back and see all the different events! When the kids were babies…to Halloween…Birthdays…Christmas…etc