The EPCOT Holiday Cookie Stroll: The Most Delicious Way to Celebrate the Season!

Starting in 2019, the EPCOT Center at Disney World began hosting its incredibly fun EPCOT Holiday Cookie Stroll. This scrumptious stroll is part of the park’s annual International Festival of the Holidays. 

A few years ago, EPCOT’s festival was called “Holidays Around The World,” and holiday kitchens were a relatively new – and wonderful – addition to the celebration. To the delight of our taste buds, the festival’s food menu has continued to expand, and now, these kitchens are where you’ll find the best Christmas cookies in Walt Disney World!

Now, that’s the way the cookie should crumble! 

Adventure Across the World – With Cookies!

If you wander through EPCOT’s World Showcase, you’ll eventually come across all five of the park’s amazing kitchens. During the annual stroll, each kitchen will feature a different cookie, usually baked with a delicious twist that highlights a particular country or region of the world.

The participating kitchens have previously included the American Holiday Table, Bavaria Holiday Kitchen, Yukon Holiday Kitchen, Festival Favorites, and the L’Chaim Holiday Kitchen. While the abundance of other holiday kitchens aren’t part of the EPCOT Holiday Cookie Stroll, they will give you the fuel you need to complete it! We recommend stopping by Citrus Blossom, Sapphire Holiday Kitchen, and Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company when you need a little more sustenance than a sweet cookie. 

You may also want to see what’s for dinner at the event’s official holiday table: featured dishes in the past have included turkey, stuffing, and cheese fondue served in a bread bowl. That’s worth putting dessert on hold!

Of course, this delectable event involves more than just buying (and eating!!) cookies. When you participate, you get a festival passport, and your goal is to fill it with stickers that represent each cookie you buy. Once you’ve filled your festival passport with all five stickers, you’ll be able to get A FREE COOKIE to complete the experience! Seriously, what could be better than collecting stickers AND cookies!?

You can be sure you’re getting the coolest Christmas cookies around, as EPCOT changes the cookie list every year! It’s a new and exciting experience every time! And it’s definitely the best way to satisfy your sweet tooth at Disney World during the holiday season.

Typical selections include the Black and White Cookie and Gingerbread, but you might also encounter some really unique Christmas cookies, like Linzer, a popular confectionary delight in Germany. Past cookie strolls have also included Mexico’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookie and even Peppermint Pinwheels! 

Most people with a hardcore sweet tooth will probably finish all of these Christmas cookies before they leave the park. (Who, me??) But if you have the self-control to take some home with you – or you just want an awesome souvenir – consider topping off your cookie stroll experience by purchasing the official Holiday Cookie Stroll cookie jar!  

How To Capitalize On The Cookies

Preparing for the EPCOT Holiday Cookie Stroll in advance makes the experience even more enjoyable.

One thing to remember: stay hydrated! While you can bring bottled drinks into the park (just not glass jars), you can also opt to get your drinks in EPCOT. Water seems to be the most popular choice, but it may not be your preference. You can always get a coffee – from Starbucks, no less! – or even just order a cup of milk. (After all, nothing goes together like milk and cookies!) If you want something really special, there’s usually eggnog on tap at the Showcase Plaza.

For a lot of people, this is the only way to properly experience the EPCOT Holiday Cookie Stroll! 

It’s also worth noting that the cookie stroll doesn’t have to be completed in one day; in fact, it’s recommended to do it over the span of a couple of days! As long as you have your Festival of the Holidays passport with you, you can complete the stroll without causing yourself tummy troubles or experiencing an epic sugar rush.

Just make sure you’re in EPCOT on a day when the Festival of the Holidays is taking place! In general, the festival is held from the end of November through the end of December, but it’s always best to check the schedule on Disney World’s website (or the My Disney Experience app) before planning your visit. 

Complimentary EPCOT Holiday Cookie Stroll Experiences

While milk may be a cookie’s best friend, there are other things that go well with the cookie stroll, too – like the festival’s other holiday-themed attractions!

EPCOT usually puts together an elaborate Gingerbread Capital City. Highlights of past gingerbread cities include a five-foot-tall Washington Monument, the Capitol Building, and the memorial for Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Using your Festival of the Holidays passport, you can see which countries within EPCOT have Christmas storytellers. Becoming a story scavenger hunter is a super fun way to complement your cookie-collecting experience! Christmas storytellers share their tales of the holiday traditions specific to their country. You can even go in search of a Hanukkah storyteller! (Sadly, the Holiday Armadillo from Friends has not yet been invited to EPCOT.)

Countries that typically participate in the storytelling event are Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, and Italy. Each participating country goes out of its way to show you how and why they celebrate the winter holidays the way they do. Most of them involve singing and dancing, which makes for a wonderfully engaging show!

But there are so many other ways Disney World celebrates the holiday season, too! Another really popular holiday activity is the Candlelight Processional. Originating in Disneyland in 1958, Disney World carried over the Christmas tradition when it opened in 1971. The initial location of the processional was in the Magic Kingdom before it was transferred to EPCOT in 1994. The processional stars a celebrity narrator who reads the biblical Christmas story, accompanied by gorgeous music from a live orchestra and massive choir. Generally, the Candlelight Processional takes place three times a day in the American Garden Theatre for the duration of the festival.

Another thing to check out at this theater is the Voices of Liberty! This holiday performance includes all the beloved Christmas carols you’ve listened to (and sung loudly in the car) your whole life. 

A Trail of Crumbs

Although the EPCOT Holiday Cookie Stroll is just one small part of the International Festival of the Holidays, it’s also one of the best parts. No matter who you are or where you’re from, pretty much everyone can appreciate a good cookie, especially during the holiday season!

If you’ve never celebrated the holidays at Disney World before, you owe it to yourself to experience it at least once. The cookie stroll is just the sweet start of all there is to see and do.

And while it may change slightly from one year to the next, it’s safe to say that it’s worth taking the stroll every year! Disney works hard to include their best-loved activities in the annual festival, so it’s likely we’ll be taking cookie strolls long into the future! 

After all, who can resist munching on some delicious Christmas cookies in the most magical place on earth?

Tell us about your favorite EPCOT Christmas cookie in the comments below!

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Featurec photo: kieferpix from Getty Images via Canva