Halloween Time at Disneyland Brings Holiday Fun and a Bounty of New Churros

Halloween’s shambling our way like a black-and-white zombie on a local UHF station, and you’ve still got a solid month and a half to check out Halloween Time at Disneyland Resort in California. This might be my favorite season at Disneyland; the night’s getting longer, the air’s getting cooler and crisper, I can wear my home made Mr. Toad satin jacket without getting too sweaty, and, yeah, there are giant pumpkin-shaped Mickey and Donald heads everywhere. It’s nice. It’s autumnal, or at least as much as Southern California gets, which is more than Orlando gets. (If you want True Fall at a Disney park, you gotta go to France.) I dig it. And it’s got some good Halloween-themed churros, which are absolutely crucial. 

Disneyland and churros have a long, rich history together, probably. I have no idea. I grew up going to Disney World, and don’t remember ever eating a single churro there as a kid. Disneyland, though, has a strong churros culture today, and it could be decades old, or it could be something that started in, like, 2013. Again, no idea. I’m sure there’s a four-hour-long YouTube video you can watch all about the history of churros at Disneyland if you really need to know. All I know is that churros have been big there for the decade or so I’ve been going to Disneyland, and that new, limited run churro flavors are a notable part of any self-respecting seasonal celebration there.

This year’s no different. During a recent churros tour of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure I tasted no less than seven different fried dough sticks, each one with a ghoulish and grisly Halloween theme, and each one available for a limited time only. Most are on sale through Nov. 14, while a couple of Haunted Mansion-themed churros will be around until early January. Until then it’s churro o’clock whenever you please in the Happiest Place on Earth.

Picking a favorite is impossible. Messing up fried dough is almost impossible. All of these churros put in the work and finish the drill and git-r-done, especially the peanut butter-chocolate churro, which is available exclusively at the Cozy Cone Motel 1 spot in Carsland near the Mater right. Coated with peanut butter sugar, drizzled with chocolate sauce and then covered with candy that’s basically Reese’s Pieces, this is a big ol’ gloppy, gloopy mess of a treat, but one that tastes amazing. Not far away, at the Senor Buzz Churro stand at Pixar Pier, I checked out the poison apple churro, which might’ve been my favorite, and which unfortunately didn’t put me to sleep until a passing stranger woke me with a kiss. This green cinnamon sugar churro has blood-red apple-flavored icing dripping off of it, evoking the cursed apple from Snow White; it’s extremely sweet, of course, and another mess to eat, but eye-opening in its bold cinnamon apple flavor—a combo that is about as autumnal as it gets.

These two might’ve been the standouts in terms of taste and presentation, but there are five other churros to sink your teeth into this holiday. Over at the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland, you can find a complementary pair of churros with a matrimonial theme; the Bride is in all white with sugar and vanilla, while the Groom mixes dark and milk chocolate in his sugary tux. These are both available into 2025, so no rush to celebrate this wedding. If you aren’t intimidated by Disney’s most fearsome villain, there’s a tasty Maleficent churro rolled in chocolate cookie crumbles found near Sleeping Beauty Castle and Town Square. I didn’t realize Maleficent was a cookie fiend; I figured she got by on a diet of fear and souls, but I guess it’s hard to make churros out of that stuff. 

Disney California Adventure is the churro champ this year, as it is most—probably because it’s the home of Disneyland’s official after hours Halloween event, the annual Oogie Boogie Bash. In addition to the poison apple and peanut butter-chocolate churros, California Adventure also boasts perhaps the most perfect churro for the season: the pumpkin spiced churro at Willie’s Churros cart. It’s got pumpkin-flavored sugar, a cream cheese icing drizzle, and squares of graham cracker cereal on top, making it an ideal cereal / churro hybrid for all you pumpkin spice zealots. Finally, you can find the “matcha chai madness churro” at Hollywood Land; the flavor profile doesn’t scream Halloween—it’s coated with matcha and pistachio sugar, with chocolate sauce and almonds on top—but it certainly looks the part, with its ghastly green pallor. 

I am no churro gourmand. I am no churro critic. I can’t divine the differences between an everyday great churro and one that’s truly sublime. As an everyday, working man, Joe Sixpack kind of churro fan, all I know is when a churro tastes good. And all of these churros taste good. If we have to make it a contest, the poison apple probably wins, as it’s both delicious and the most interesting looking. But when it comes to churros we’re all winners, right?

I am a loser in one way, sadly: California Churro at Downtown Disney will have three more exclusive Halloween-themed churros, but only during October, well after my brief stay at Disneyland. Those churros shall remain uneaten by me, but if you’re the neighborhood, stop by and check ‘em out for your old pal Garrett, wouldn’t you?

Of course there’s far more to Halloween Time at Disneyland than churros. There are all manner of themed treats and limited edition eats available throughout both parks and Downtown Disney, and you can find a complete rundown of those at the Disney Parks Blog. Beyond food, you can find exclusive collectibles and other merch throughout the parks, from clothes to popcorn buckets. Haunted Mansion Holiday, the beloved Haunted Mansion overlay starring the cast of A Nightmare Before Christmas, is back once again, this time for its longest engagement yet; for the first year it’s using Disney’s virtual queue system, due to construction work in the ride’s traditional queue, so if you’re a quick draw with the app you can guarantee a spot without having to stand in line. And Oogie Boogie Bash is back at Disney California Adventure on select nights through Halloween; this separately ticketed nighttime party is sold out this year, so if you were looking forward to it hopefully you already got your tickets.

Disneyland also celebrates Día de los Muertos alongside Halloween every year. At Disneyland proper you can find various Día de los Muertos icons in Frontierland, including a trio of towering skeleton mariachis; across the palisade, at Disney California Adventure’s Plaza de la Familia, a Coco musical show and Miguel meet-and-greet brings Pixar’s best movie to life, alongside a Memory Wall to leave messages to your family and friends.

And as always, the best reason to visit Disneyland during Halloween is so you can get to see Mickey Mouse and his pals in their Halloween costumes. Donald and Daisy teamed up on a couples costume as a witch and a warlock, and on sight I was ready to sign everything over to their dark and eldritch master. That Daisy sure knows how to pick a costume.

Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, comedy, travel, theme parks, wrestling, and more. He’s also on Twitter @grmartin.