Easy Ways to Add a Little Disney Magic to Your Day!

What a Good Day to Have a Disney Day!

Sometimes we simply need a little magic in our day. Well, there is no one who does magic like Disney. And if you can’t travel to Disney, plan a Disney Day at Home! If you are missing the family fun of the Disney Parks, needing a different kind of celebration for a birthday or anniversary, or wanting a fun way to tell your loved ones you’ve booked a trip, a Disney Day at home is the perfect way to make any day a magical day! Read on for the story of how we designed a Best Day Ever for our family and for lots of free helpful tools and printable plans. You’ll find everything you need to make your home the Happiest Place on Earth. Click here to go straight to the DIY Disney Day Freebie! *Note: I am not affiliated with The Walt Disney Company in any capacity. I receive no compensation from any affiliates linked in this post. These are resources I am aware of or have used and are merely personal suggestions. Disney World is my favorite place on earth. Days I spent visiting the parks with those I love rank among my happiest memories. In March of 2020, we found ourselves hunkered-down in our home with three active kids. We have always been big on experiences, and making days special for our children was always a priority. That is difficult to do in a lockdown, so we had to get creative. We needed a little magic, and Disney never disappoints.  So, we designed a Disney Day at home so that our kids could feel a little like we had been to our favorite place without ever leaving home. The result was a day my children still talk about.  It was easy and fun, and even without much Disney experience, anyone can do it. Here’s how we did it.

Start with a dream…

Walt Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” We just took that literally and ran with it. We asked our kids what they would want to do most if we had one day at Disney. They said “everything.” We set out to do all the things they love: rides, parades, nighttime shows, Disney snacks, themed meals, and even looking at the maps (my oldest loves maps).  We started with a schedule of all the things we would do and shared it with our kids. I made ours in google drawings, but you could use any digital tool or write it on a poster board.  Because we have small children, we included things like Learning Time and Build Disney World that you probably wouldn’t do with older kids or adults. That’s the wonderful thing about Disney. There is something for everyone. So, when you “go to Disney” in your home, choose what you love.  You might choose to include all the staples: great meals, iconic rides, signature snacks, and nighttime spectaculars. Or you might decide to do a special Disney Day as if you were going to the Food and Wine Festival or celebrating a birthday. Your plans are really only limited by your imagination. And if you don’t have a lot of experience with Disney, or don’t know where to start, click here to download our free planning guide! 

“If you can dream it, you can do it!”

Once we had our plans ready, we gathered everything we needed. We tried to plan things in such a way as to better use things we already had. We dressed for the day in our Disney finest, including our ears! If you need Disney headwear for you magical day, ShopDisney is the place to get all the official merchandise. You can also check out shops on Etsy like this one. If you don’t have ears, no worries! Wear a favorite Disney tee and you’re all set! After a breakfast of Mickey pancakes and some learning time, we planned our trip with the kids. My big boy, my six-year-old, especially likes to be part of planning our trips, but this was really fun for us all. We used the interactive map from the Disney World Official Site and planning printables from a great site called DisneyDreamCo!  Then we just had fun being together and enjoying all our favorite Disney activities.

Please keep your hands and arms inside the couch at all times…

Riding the rides is my favorite part of Disney! And enjoying them from the comfort of your couch is so easy! We used our smart TV, but you can also use any TV with a firestick (or similar device) or with a computer connected by an HDMI cable.  We pulled up the rides we wanted to “ride” on YouTube and reacted exactly as we normally would. You might choose, if you have older children or just adults especially, to just sit back and relax and enjoy. However, you might rather yell or raise your hands or sing along. Whatever you choose to do, if you make it fun, it will be.

Disney Dining!

Disney has some incredible restaurants! In my family, we love eating at Disney more than eating almost anywhere because every meal is an experience. With the meal part of your Disney Day, you can honestly do anything you want to do. Sample cuisines from around the world like you are “eating your way around the world” at the Food and Wine Festival. Watch the fireworks over an elegant candlelit dinner like you are at The California Grill. Have a laid back meal with your favorite aquatic life at The Coral Reef or animal friends at Rainforest Cafe. The options are really limitless. My three-year-old and one-year old both love hot dogs, so we chose Casey’s Corner for lunch. It was easy. A red-checked tablecloth from Amazon and some tee balls and Mickey ears we already had and we were good to go! We made hot dogs and fries, and our kids loved it!  My oldest loves Tutto Italia, so we ate there for dinner. I used the same tablecloth, but instead of tee balls and Mickey ears, I used taper candles from the local dollar store, some glasses I had painted at a girls night out years ago, a wine bottle from our honeymoon, and a sign that was a gift from one of my students. We made spaghetti with bread and salad, which was super easy and kid-friendly.  We did not do this, but one option you could consider is making an authentic Disney recipe. There are lots of sites that feature Disney recipes (like this one), or you could invest in a Disney Cookbook.  Look below for photos of our table settings. Though neither table looks exactly like it would look at Disney World, it made the experience feel real. My kids still ask for us to decorate our table and “go to [Disney restaurant] tonight.” It made for two very memorable meals. 

Some Imagination, huh?

The main requirement for a Disney Day in your home is imagination. It is fitting, then, that we ended our day with a viewing of Fantasmic while we ate popcorn and Mickey Ice Cream Bars.  If you want to include a nighttime spectacular in your Disney Day, there are so many options. You could pick a favorite you’ve seen in person. Back during the initial lockdowns of the Covid19 pandemic, Disney Parks posted an awesome video of the Happily Ever After fireworks show at Magic Kingdom. You might also watch a show that’s been retired, like Wishes or the Electromagic Parade. If you really want something different, you could choose a show from another Disney park. I highly recommend “Disney Illuminations” from Disneyland Paris, which you can watch here. 

Want help planning your Disney Day? Here’s everything you need!

Whatever you choose to do on your Disney Day, it will be a magical experience everyone will enjoy.  Check out our free complete Disney Day Planning Guide below. It has everything you need to plan your own Best Day Ever and create meaningful memories for you and your loved ones. You’ll find the link to subscribe and download the freebie below. Check out the images for just a sample of what you will get!  And please share with me in the comments how you planned your own unique Disney Day at Home! Have a good day!

Click Here to Download the Disney Day Freebie!

Note:  Content of this post belongs to Jamie @whatagoodday.com. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. I’m happy for you to share this post but be sure to link to this post. Thank you.