launches in its various resort locations in the United States and around the world. Starting in 2016, the Disney/ABC family of networks have aired companion specials in the weeks leading up to the parade. That year, The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration and Disney Parks Descendants Magical Holiday Celebration aired November 24 on ABC and November 25 on Disney Channel respectively, featuring many of the same personalities as the Christmas parade, tying into the Descendants TV-movie franchise. Some segments and performances in that year's Christmas parade were even recycled from the two earlier specials. The following year, Freeform announced that they would not only air the second Magical Holiday Celebration after its original airing on ABC, but premiere a new hour-long special entitled Decorating Disney: Holiday Magic, which goes behind the scenes of the Disney parks' holiday festivities. This move coincides with the channel's popular 25 Days of Christmas event expanding to many of the other Disney-owned networks. The Disney Channel special from the parks, now titled Disney Parks Presents a Disney Channel Holiday Celebration, also returned for the 2017 holiday season. 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. Usually, the parade opens with the opening message from the CEO of Walt Disney welcoming television viewers to the broadcast, this was a tradition that began in 2002. The special has been carried by the American Forces Network. Telemundo has aired Spanish-language versions of the special under the titles Desfile de Navidad Disney, (Feliz) Navidad Disney, and Navidad Mágica Disney, which typically feature Latin musicians. Until 2018, the special was also simulcast by CBC Television in Canada. The 2005 edition of the parade won Harborlight Entertainment and ABC the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Special. History 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