Like the Macy's Parade, it concludes with the arrival of Santa Claus and one of the most anticipated highlights every year is seeing Walt Disney's iconic Babes in Toyland soldiers from the 1961 film.

However, until the early 1990s, the parade was broadcast live on Christmas Day on CBS, with whom Disney had partnered for Thanksgiving and New Year celebrations as well.

The recorded segments of the parade show feature highlights of the activities through the Walt Disney Company including motion pictures, television, home entertainment and streaming, music, cruises, world tours, and the newest attractions and resort hotels slated for future launches in its various resort locations in the United States and around the world.

This move coincides with the channel's popular 25 Days of Christmas event expanding to many of the other Disney-owned networks.

[1] To reflect the huge part played in the production of the event, beginning in the parade of 2017, the prerecorded holiday greetings that air during the broadcast have been made not just by talents from both Walt Disney Pictures and the Disney Channel and the online streaming service Disney+, but also from the ABC Network, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, the Muppets and other entities owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company in the United States and around the world.

Walt Disney himself presented the first holiday parade from Disneyland Park in 1962 on the NBC network as an episode of his weekly anthology series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color entitled "Holiday Time at Disneyland."

This was also the television parade debut of the Babes in Toyland soldiers, replicated exactly from the 1961 Disney musical feature, The soldiers, later seen in Mary Poppins, continue to be highly recognizable symbols of Disney Parks holiday parades and shows.

Walt Disney World's Very Merry Christmas Parade began on the ABC network 1983 with Joan Lunden as the first (and longest-running to date) host and Mike Douglas as co-host.