Happy Birthday to the Happiest Place on Earth (Part 2!)

As you could probably tell from my previous blog post, I'm super pumped about the 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration that's going to be happening at Disneyland starting this May, and if you couldn't tell, well-- I am so excited for this!!

My last post covered all of the fun new shows that are coming along with this sparkling celebration, and now I'm here to tell you about all of the dazzling decorations and merchandise that's going to accompany all of the new spectacles to celebrate Disneyland's birthday (I apologize in advance for the surplus of pictures that are going to come along with this post).

First off: Decorations. When you think of Disneyland, what's the first thing that comes to mind? I don't know about you, but for me it's the Sleeping Beauty Castle. The Sleeping Beauty Castle has been (and always will be) the very symbol of Disneyland. Sure, it might have started out as a promotional advertisement for Sleeping Beauty (which came out in 1959, four years after Disneyland opened), but it's become an iconic part of Disneyland.

With the new Diamond Celebration coming, Sleeping Beauty Castle is going to be shining with diamonds. You may have seen the shining spires in the first picture on the last blog post, and that's what we can expect the amazing new decorations on Sleeping Beauty Castle to look like.

The tips of the Castle will dazzle
with these diamond decorations

Not only will we get these glimmering decorations on Sleeping Beauty Castle, we can also expect them on the Carthay Circle Theatre on Buena Vista Street in California Adventure. Though this building isn't as iconic as Sleeping Beauty Castle, it is supposed to be California Adventure's equivalent of the Sleeping Beauty Castle (random Disney fact: there's actually a restaurant in the Carthay Circle Theatre, and it is also the residence of a special VIP club called Club 1901).

In addition to the beautiful diamonds, each of these buildings will get their own diamond medallion featuring the letter "D" and the entire park will glisten and gleam with festive banners and décor. The entire park will be adorned in decorations in varying shades of Disney blue.

What to expect for both the Sleeping Beauty Castle and Carthay Circle Theatre decorations

Up next: Merchandise. Now, everyone knows that Disney is always trying to make an extra buck (even though the Walt Disney Company is already worth about $143 billion*), and that they are always coming up with new stuff to sell to all of the Disneyholics (like me!). Though they already have a  plethora of merchandise for sale, they are coming out with over 500 new Disneyland items for the 60th Anniversary including items in sections such as apparel, home décor, accessories, souvenirs, toys, pins, and so much more.

My favorite piece of merchandise concept art, clearly
displaying the progression from past Disney to present
Disney

All of this new merchandise** isn't going to be all available at once, no, Disney is going to make certain groups available before others. The merchandise is going to follow a timeline. In the beginning, items that depict some of the original Disney films, featuring some the original characters such as Snow White and the seven dwarves, Pinnochio, Peter Pan, and many more of the classic Disney characters. As we get closer to the 60th, more merchandise will come out, and will be more colorful and introduce some of the more modern Disney characters (newer princesses, Pixar characters, etc.).

In addition to all of the normal merchandise, trading pin collectors will be excited to hear about the limited edition trading pins for the 60th Anniversary. The pins will come out one by one (one per month, starting in January and leading up to the 60th Anniversary on July 17)

Fun new pins for the 60th

The pins will feature some memorable quotes and moments from Walt Disney himself and even though I don't collect pins myself, I can't wait to drool over these beautiful pins.

So I'm really excited for the release all of this new limited edition merchandise and to go and see all the beautiful decorations that will be around the park. We only have three more months before we get to see all of these magical Disney ideas come to life and I hope that you're all just as excited about this as I am!!

Sources:
- Disney Parks blog
- disneyparksmerchandise.com
- disneydose.com

* statistic from May 2014
** look at some more art for the merchandise here