Why Universal Studios Is Already Planning Christmas

During the shutdown, most of us have been cleaning our homes, playing video games or learning a new skill. The same goes for most of the team members from the Universal Orlando theme park complex but not all of them. A small group of its staff is already planning Christmas.

If you're someone who can't stand the sight of tinsel until after Thanksgiving then spare a thought for the scenic team at Universal Orlando. As soon as the holiday season ends in early January they have to start planning the next one which is due to begin on November 14.

The preparation involves decking out two theme parks, eight on-site hotels and a sprawling shopping and dining complex. Together they span around 840 acres but size isn't the only reason that it takes more than the wave of a magic wand to plan.

The strategy most people take to prepare their homes for the holiday season is to put up the first decorations they pull out of storage and keep layering them on until they look sparkly enough. Not Universal. Its baubles and garlands are carefully chosen to tell a story.

Few films are as festive as the Harry Potter series. Hogsmeade, the village where the boy wizard learns his craft, looks like a scene from Christmas card. Its main street is lined with shops in cottages which have sharply sloping roofs, carved wooden doors and ornate iron signs swinging above them. At the Universal Studios park in Orlando there's a full-size recreation of the cottages complete with artificial snow piled up in their gutters. The attention to detail is enchanting.

The windows of the cottages are filled with moving models of colourful creatures from the Potter films and smoke seems to billow from the chimneys on the roofs. Creaky carts sell Butterbeer, Potter’s favorite tipple, and there's even a full-size replica of the Hogwarts Express steam train which takes guests to the neighboring Islands of Adventure park. The carriages wouldn't look out of place on the rails in Potter's home country of England and all that's missing is a bristling breeze.

You disembark at Diagon Alley which looks like London from the pages of Charles Dickens' holiday classic A Christms Carol. Tall wonky wooden buildings line the narrow cobbled street leading to Gringotts Bank with its imposing cylindrical stone columns that support an elaborate domed roof.

It all looks lived in. The stone slabs lining the walls seem to be chipped, the wooden beams around the windows of the buildings look weathered and the doors even have old-fashioned knockers on them. Its Christmas decorations actually help it to maintain the illusion of being a real street.

"If you walk around and look at the décor from Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade, it is all so specific and unique to the shop that it is in front of," says Deborah Buynak, Vice President of entertainment at Universal Orlando.

"It is designed to reflect the proprietor of that shop. So if you walk into Diagon Alley, on the left hand side is a little shop called Madam Malkin’s, it’s the dress shop where they make the clothing for the students, and the garland that is around it is intertwined with a pink ribbon. If you step back and look up, Hermione Granger’s dress from the Yule Ball is displayed in the upper window and matches the ribbon that is entwined in the garland."

Hermione isn't the only one of Potter's pals who appears to have had a hand in creating their own decorations. Fireworks hang from garlands around the Weasley twins' joke shop and a star formed from the letters of a print press hangs above a door that is meant to lead to the Daily Prophet newspaper. Some touches are even more subtle such as a wreath that appears to be made from the pages of old manuscripts hanging on the door of Flourish and Blotts bookshop. It's the same story in the other park.

"In Hogsmeade there is a little sporting needs shop called Spintwitches and, since they sell sporting goods, they use the Quidditch equipment in decorating. So if you look at their decorations, Quidditch equipment runs through it," says Buynak. Her eye for detail has been honed over a career which spans nearly three decades. She is one of the most respected figures in the themed entertainment industry and one of the most dedicated. That is the magic formula for pulling off such a titanic transformation.

"As soon as we get installed and open we start planning for the next year’s holiday season," she says. "Then by the time we have to take it down in January we go through questions like, what worked? What didn’t? What did we like? What do we need to replace? What do we need to order? What do we need to repair?" It casts a powerful spell.

"We want our guests to be completely immersed in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and feel like they are on the streets of Hogsmeade, on the streets of Diagon Alley and London. We want them to be there," explains Buynak. It is a team effort which doesn't just involve the entertainment and scenic teams at Universal but also Potter author J.K. Rowling’s agent The Blair Partnership and Warner Bros, which distributed the movies.

"We work very closely with Warner Bros. and the Blair Partnership and they give us some unique insight. Then we come up with how we think the shopkeepers would decorate each of their shops so uniquely. We start by looking at the fiction, finding the stories that we want to pull from it and bring to life.

"That’s how we start and then once we have pulled them out we work very closely with Warner Bros. to get their insight on what we are interested in. Then we do our storyboards or models and continue to work with Warner Bros. to make sure we are on the right track. Then it’s time to actually produce it and get it out on the streets.

"We start with sketch ups and go to CAD [Computer Aided Design] drawings then sometimes we do a pre-vis which is a rough computer-generated video. So we will look at all of those things before we actually go into production. Sometimes we will even do proof of concepts so we will make a lighter version of whatever it is that we are going to make."

Buynak adds that Universal doesn't just go to these lengths to immerse fans in the Potter world but also because it knows they are sticklers for detail.

"We have found that especially with the folks who are fans of the Harry Potter franchise, they know the books so well, and they know the movies so well, that they are looking for that detail. So when they come to visit they want to see those little snippets that show this is real and genuine."

Elsewhere, fans will find hints of other characters who have rides in the parks like yellow pranksters the Minions and the Whos of Whoville from the Dr. Seuss stories. "When you think about the traditions of Christmas, they are there," says Buynak. "You can find those comforts at Universal. You can find hot chocolate but you will also find hot butterbeer. And you will hear the sounds of the season. You will hear Christmas songs but you will hear them sung by the Whos of Whoville. We have Christmas trees everywhere but we let the Minions decorate them so it is just beyond traditional. You will get the comforts but then there is a little bit of crazy fun added in."

Although the decorations in Universal's Potter lands are sometimes subliminal, elsewhere in the parks they are layered on. Even then it still suits the theme. This can be seen most clearly on Universal's sets which are meant to represent typical streets in New York, Hollywood and San Francisco but actually are facades with restaurants and rides behind them. Cities are where you would expect to find the most ostentatious ornaments and Universal reflects that.

Candy canes hang from the ornate store fronts, there are wreaths on the shop doors and the street lights are wrapped in ribbons. Tinsel alone alone isn’t enough for Universal so its version of the decoration also has LED lights woven into it.

"The decorations come in 200 crates that are four by eight by six in size. Within those crates there are 50,000 feet of garlands that have 11,000 strings of lights that go with them. On the Christmas Tree there are 300 ornaments and over 100,000 lights. The star on top of the tree is eight by eight." Putting all this up takes manpower rather than magic.

"We have a team of 14 people who get the decorations prepped and ready to go year-round," says Buynak. "When it gets to the actual decoration install, there’s 20 of them and they work in different phases starting in mid-October.

"Where that expands is putting up the Christmas tree which is 80 feet tall, about 27 feet in diameter and has to be installed in one night because you can’t have guests come in and see half a tree. So there’s a group of ten people who put that up on the Thursday after our Halloween Horror Nights season ends. It’s around November 7.

"I would say it takes about 25 people to put up the tree. That’s just unloading and directing traffic to put it up. It is done over night in phases so the tree will go in then the next night ornaments will go on and then the lighting gets installed. So it goes in phases but every day it has to look presentable for our guests.

"The tree is too big to do it backstage and move it in one piece so it comes in in rings. It’s too big to get through any of the gates or past the buildings. Maneuvering through the streets in one whole piece would not be possible."

What do maneuver through the street sets are giant balloons like the ones in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. They are colorful blimp-like inflatables which bob along a parade route in time to the troupe of skilled operators they are tethered to on the streets below. The balloons are also based on classic characters from Universal rides like the Minions and Shrek.

"There are over 30 elements all together. There’s an almost even split of floats and balloons," says Buynak. It is no coincidence that they look similar to the floats in the Macy’s parade as Universal has been partnering with the retail giant for nearly 20 years.

"We originally started our work with Macy’s in 2002. That’s the first time we had them bring their balloons down," says Buynak. The original partnership was us trying to find a different Christmas parade to present to our guests. We wanted to be able to show them something that you don’t get to see anywhere else. Everybody knows the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade so we asked Macy's when they are done with Thanksgiving where do the balloons go?

"When we did our original parade in 2002 we started after Thanksgiving because they would finish the parade in New York and bring some of the balloons down here to us. We made our first major change to that parade in 2017 and changed it to Universal’s Holiday Parade featuring Macy’s which was a whole makeover of the parade with new balloons and new floats. We now have balloons that reflect our characters in the park like Minions.

"After it finishes, Macy's take the balloons and inspects them to make sure that they are good to go. Then they come down to us. They have to be a little bit smaller than the ones in New York to make it through our streets."

It is much more than a branding exercise as Universal collaborates closely with John Piper, the talented Vice President of Macy's Parade Studio. Piper is a 20 year veteran of Macy's who oversees the design and production of all the balloons and floats for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Macy's Parade Studio also produces large scale events for the famous store like its 4th of July Fireworks and Spring Flower Shows. Universal makes the most of his experience.

"Macy’s are great partners. They are the experts on all things helium balloons," says Buynak. "Who else would you go to for the design of the balloons and the building of the balloons? The team is led by John Piper and it has full input right down to even teaching us how to maneuver the balloons through the streets. They are the experts at that and every year we have a new set of people who come to help us handle these balloons so they go through all that training with us.

"We do the controlling but Macy’s gives us the instructions and they stay with us the whole time. They are out there with us every day walking the parade route. They have people on site throughout the entire run. They are like family members we only see at the holidays."

The parade isn't the only aspect of the holiday celebrations that has changed over the years. "In 2018 we heard from guests that they want more. They wanted more music, more characters and more holiday feeling in the parks. So we made a change in 2019. We took elements from our parade and put them in the park throughout the day."

Buynak explains that "the parade performers are in little holiday shows so that, at every corner, guests run into some sort of holiday festivity. The cool thing about that is that guests can go up and stand right next to the float and take a picture which they can't do when the parade goes by. It is all about getting photos for social media and giving our guests a chance to go up there." That's not all.

The Grinch, the Day-Glo green character from the Dr. Seuss stories, stars in a mini musical on a festive set featuring houses that appear to be made from giant candy canes. Known as the Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular, Buynak explains that the indoor show is "just for holidays. The set is built just for this. A staff of 20 people install it and take it down then we store it. That set was new in 2018. We had a previous set that was ready to be refreshed and this has a little more detail, color and more houses."

Over in the Harry Potter lands is the surreal sight of a choir of robe-wearing students singing holiday-themed carols in harmony whilst giant model frogs in their hands croak in time to the tunes. For something more traditional, the new-age music group Mannheim Steamroller performs free for all guests on certain nights. "We do ten of them in total. It’s annual and we have a great relationship with them. They are the best-selling holiday artists ever," says Buynak. It doesn't stop there.

Seasonal food and beverages, like hot Butterbeer, are on sale during the holiday season and Universal puts more than 35 new items of Grinch merchandise on sale as well as new ugly sweaters and Macy’s merchandise. It's far from child's play as the holiday season has a spellbinding economic impact.

Buynak says there are "just under 1,000 performers for the holidays in total. Some of them are year-round team members, who get to do something a little different, and with others its holiday employment." For them in particular, Christmas can't come soon enough..