[3] Initially, Disney considered doing a retelling of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, but decided against it due to the attraction's setting in New Orleans Square and the incongruity of bringing Santa Claus into the eerie environment of the Haunted Mansion.

Toombs's daughter, Kim Irvine, resembled her mother and was thus chosen to perform in her place as Madame Leota, with Susan Blakeslee (impersonating Audley and whom she once trained under), providing the character's voice.

On September 13, 2013 (Friday the 13th), the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland opened to the public outfitted with new effects and set pieces in celebration of its 13th year.

Deciding to spread joy to the mansion's gloomy residents for the holidays, Jack and his creepy crew from Halloween Town bring hundreds of Jack's original evil Christmas presents and decorations to the manor and deck the haunting grounds for a thrilling and chilling holiday for the Grim Grinning Ghosts inhabiting the abandoned house, setting the stage for the ride itself.

At Tokyo, a painting of Jack transforming from the Pumpkin King to his Santa Claus guise replaces the Aging Man changing portrait.

The stretching portraits have been replaced with stained-glass pictures depicting innocent Christmas scenes with wreaths as their frames.

The pictures burst into shards, and luminescent paintings of Halloween Town's Christmas vision emerge, depicting Jack as Santa Claus riding his coffin sleigh high above the Mansion, a man-eating wreath, scary toys, Santa Claus opening a giant sack as ghosts rise up and a giant carnivorous snake.

The suspense builds until lightning crashes and Jack's face appears in the ceiling above, cackling, "Happy Holidays, everyone!

In 2013, Jack's face is replaced by a new animated projection of him and Zero and the hanging body of the Ghost Host remains intact.

The changing portraits here have also been replaced with ones depicting: The choir returns as the song Kidnap the Sandy Claws begins to play.

Instead, immediately after the portrait chamber, the guests enter the loading area, which is decorated with orange Christmas lights and Halloween pumpkins.

In the music room, guests see a life-size audio-animatronic Sally, seeming depressed and sitting in the chair next to the ghostly piano that the Vampire Teddy plays.

The Doom Buggies then move up the stairs, passing terrified green cockroaches in cages with gift tags that read "For Oogie."

At the top of the stairs, Oogie Boogie's shadow appears and turns into a Christmas tree shape in the full moon above.

At Anaheim Disneyland, upon boarding the Doom Buggies (referred to as Black Christmas Sleighs in the overlay), guests ascend the staircase.

In Tokyo, the raven remains in this scene and Leota is not in a Christmas ornament and is covered in candles with Lock, Shock, and Barrel looking at her through a window in the back of the room.

An immense dead Christmas tree (with one live branch at the top) covered in candles and spiders with lights now sits in the middle of the dance floor, but the ghosts waltz right through it.

The curtains at the top of the staircase in the back of the hall have opened, revealing the mansion's library, complete with a floating tree made of books.

Throughout the room, some of the evil toys come to life as the guests pass by, including three jack-in-the-boxes (one featuring a stylized skull, another a black cat's head, and another a jack-o-lantern using the old attic pop-up ghosts from the original ride), a bullet hole-ridden duck, a cymbal-crashing Oogie Boogie doll, and a monstrous train on tentacle-like tracks.

As the Doom Buggies reach the ground level, they pass by a towering audio-animatronic figure of Jack in his Sandy Claws outfit, wishing the guests a Merry Christmas as a replacement for the wide-eyed caretaker that usually stands in his place during most of the year, with Zero accompanying him in place of the caretaker's dog.

The music combines What’s This?, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Grim Grinning Ghosts, Jolly Old St. Nicholas, and Jingle Bells.

In Tokyo's version of the final scene, the crypt features Lock, Shock, and Barrel inside some presents, hitching a ride with the guests.