A luminaria is usually a kraft paper bag weighted down by sand and containing a lit candle. Rows of warmly glowing luminarias line streets, walkways, walls, and even rooftops on Christmas Eve. This Hispanic tradition began as a way to guide the spirit of the Christ child.

It’s the Holiday Season here at Yester California Adventure. We don’t have luminarias, we have LuminAria—a Holiday Spectacular with an upper-case L and an upper-case A.

LuminAria has nothing to do with luminarias. The official press release calls LuminAria, “a spectacular celebration of dazzling lights, low level pyrotechnics and favorite holiday music performed on the waters of Paradise Pier Lagoon.”

LuminAria is a nighttime show, but the fun begins in the daytime. Go to the festively decorated Bay Area district of park’s Golden State section. Look for the giant LuminAria banners opposite the Golden Dreams rotunda.

Well, you won’t personally be a star, but your artwork can be.

Bring your kids, but that’s not a requirement.

What do the holidays mean to you? What images come to your mind? What are your religious or secular holiday traditions? Be creative. Perhaps you or your kids will be inspired by the giant Christmas cards in the room.

Be sure to finish your artwork at least two hours before showtime.

As nightime approaches, show elements are moved to their positions in Paradise Bay.

Now it’s night. The show begins. Low-level fireworks, choreographed to a soundtrack of familiar and not-so-familiar holiday music, dance above the lagoon.

The music consists of “Shine,” “Snow Transition,” “Snowfall,” “White Christmas,” “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies,” “My Favorite Things,” “Toyland,” “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” “Holiday Wonder,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Holiday Fanfare,” “Live the Light Inside,” “Winter’s Light,” and “Disney’s LuminAria Finale.”

Do you remember those large gift packages? Large screens rise from those packages. The artwork that you, your children, and other guests produced during the day are part of the show.

Keep your eyes open for your artwork.

Just when you think it’s all over, “Disney’s LuminAria Finale” begins.

As the show reaches its end, the narrator intones, “Share your light. Share it with the world.” And one more blast of fireworks erupts above the waters of Paradise Bay.

The show lasts almost 17 minutes.

You paid attention to which way the wind was blowing, didn’t you? You picked a good spot upwind from the low-level fireworks, right? Otherwise, you were watching the show from within a cloud of thick, acrid smoke.

LuminAria premiered at Disney’s California Adventure on November 9, 2001. It was the new park’s first Christmas.

Reaction to the show on the Internet tended to be lukewarm—not as negative as for Light Magic, but not as positive as for Fantasmic! or Disneyland’s various fireworks spectaculars over the years. The virtues of the holiday music and colorful pyrotechnics were outweighed by the smoke.

Walt Disney Creative Entertainment had to deal with a lack of permanent infrastructure, a short development cycle, and budget appropriate for an 8-week holiday show. It also didn’t help that Paradise Pier rides had to close early for LuminAria—at a park that already had a reputation for too few attractions.

LuminAria ran nightly until January 6, 2002, as scheduled.

Then it never returned.

The idea of having a nighttime spectacular on Paradise Bay was good one, but LuminAria was not the right show.

More than eight years after the final performance of LuminAria, and after a huge construction project lasting through most of 2009 and into 2010, Disney’s California Adventure will get what promises to be the most spectacular water show in the world—Disney’s World of Color.

Guests viewing Disney’s World of Color will be treated to music, 1,200 fountain nozzles (each with an individually controlled underwater LED), state-of-the-art digital projection on water-spray backdrop screens, lasers, and fire—but not the continuous low-level pyrotechnics that made the acrid smoke of LuminAria. If the wind is blowing, guests may get a bit wet. But they won’t be coughing from smoke.

Disney will use the World of Color infrastructure for a holiday show. It’s a natural move, given the success of holiday versions of Disneyland shows and attractions. In an interview for the D23 website, Steven Davison, vice president, Parades & Spectaculars, Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment, explained, “We will do a holiday show and probably a Halloween show. World of Color is as endless as your imagination. We have some great ideas for Christmas that will surprise everybody, that will totally do new things.”

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Disneyland Paris, Feb. 2001 Rockin’ the Bay Home

© 2009 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks

Updated November 27, 2009.

All photos of LuminAria at Disney‘s California Adventure in this article: 2001 by Allen Huffman.
Photo of Paradise Bay with World of Color construction: 2009 by Werner Weiss.
Disney publicity art for World of Color: © Disney.