Disneyland 50th Anniversary Gold Christmas Tree Fun Facts

© Walt Disney Company

The 2005 holiday season at the Disneyland Resort will be a whole lot brighter this year as the traditional Christmas tree in Town Square on Main Street, U.S.A. goes gold in honor of Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary celebration (continuing daily through 2006). Glittering in gilded splendor the traditional live tree has received the “Midas Touch” with a golden theme to commemorate Disneyland’s half-century milestone.

Here are the trunk-to-tip facts regarding this most unique Disneyland holiday icon:

The Disneyland 50th Anniversary Gold Christmas Tree stands in Town Square on Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland from November 11, 2005 to January 2, 2006.

The tree is 60 feet tall and decorated with 5,000 golden ornaments and 5,000 holiday lights.

The lights decorating the tree are clear, white and amber accenting and highlighting the tree’s golden luminescence.

The tree’s gold topper is a symbolic pair of golden Mickey Mouse ears with the numeral “50” in the center, and is accented with genuine, hand-applied 24-karat gold leafing.

At the base of the tree are giant decorative gift boxes and colorful red poinsettias.

© Walt Disney Company

The tree was harvested from the Mount Shasta region of Northern California, near the city of Redding.

The tree is a White Fir, which is also known as a Shasta Fir.

For its journey to the Disneyland Resort the tree was secured horizontally on a flatbed tractor-trailer and transported by a trucking company to southern California.

The tree arrived at Disneyland on October 17 and soon began an extensive preparation and decorating process that took place in the Resort’s “backstage” area.

More than 20 Disneyland Resort Cast Members were involved in the process of preparing, decorating and displaying the Disneyland 50th Anniversary Gold Christmas Tree.

The entire process for this year’s tree, from selection to installation on Main Street, U.S.A., took 560 hours.

The tree firmly rests in a planter in Town Square and is kept secure from any wind effects by four guy wires that are attached to the tree. Two guy wires are anchored to Main Street buildings and two are anchored into the ground.
During the decorating process, the tree was placed in a five-foot-deep well containing 50 gallons of water. While in Town Square for its eight-week display, the tree sits in a similar well that is replenished with water every few days.

The Disneyland tradition of a giant Christmas tree towering over Main Street, U.S.A. began in 1956. Disneyland is the last Disney park in the world to still utilize a real live tree as its holiday centerpiece in Town Square.

Since its first holiday season in 1955 Disneyland has celebrated this special time of year with Yule time parades, an abundance of festive décor and special entertainment including the annual holiday parade, carolers, holiday foods, seasonal merchandise and the traditional Candlelight Ceremony and Processional.