Disney Launches Holiday Campaign with New Short Film and World Tour

To mark the 2025 holiday season, Disney has launched their “Make Someone’s Holiday Magic" campaign to celebrate the joy of giving, which includes a new short film and a holiday tour to more than 20 cities around the world with donations, community activations, and more.

For the second year in a row, Disney and Taika Waititi have collaborated on an original story for the holidays in A Disney Holiday Short: Best Christmas Ever. At the center of the story is a little girl and her doodle, which comes to life on Christmas Day after Santa mistakes the drawing for a holiday wish. The short follows the story of the friendship between the girl and the animated product of her imagination during this magical season.

The character Doodle is voiced by Disney Legend John Goodman, who has voiced numerous animated characters for Disney, including James P. “Sulley” Sullivan from Disney and Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Monsters University (2013), as well as Pacha in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), and “Big Daddy” La Bouff in The Princess and the Frog (2009), among many other Disney titles.

Walt Disney Animation Studios animator Eric Goldberg, the creator of Disney characters such as Genie from Aladdin (1992), acted as an advisor on the animation of the short in collaboration with Untold Studios, producer hungryman, and creative agency adam&eveDDB. 

This short follows last year’s Emmy®-nominated, A Disney Holiday Short: The Boy & The Octopus, also directed by Taika Waititi, whose numerous Disney credits include Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), and Searchlight Pictures’ Jojo Rabbit (2019), for which he won an Oscar® for Best Adapted Screenplay.

"What makes this story uniquely Disney is the fact that it's set in the world of a kid. It's a kid and her new best friend, navigating the complex world together, and doing it just with the power of friendship and imagination,” said Waititi. 

As part of the celebration, Disney’s Holiday Magic Tour will visit communities across the country and around the world at local schools, children’s hospitals, and nonprofit organizations, as well as VoluntEARS toy deliveries, exclusive movie screenings, a surprise Broadway cameo, and more. Tour dates and locations have yet to be announced.

Shows across Disney networks including ESPN’s First Take and SEC Nation, as well as ABC and ABC News programs like Dancing with the Stars, Good Morning America, The View, Live with Kelly and Mark, Tamron Hall, and Wheel of Fortune will amplify the spirit and excitement, helping to share Disney’s mission of making holiday magic for countless kids and families.

For over 75 years, Disney has worked with the Marine Toys for Tots program to deliver toys to children in need during the holiday season, a collaboration started by Walt Disney himself. You can make someone’s holiday magic by joining this year’s Disney Ultimate Toy Drive and donating a toy to Toys for Tots through December 24, 2025, or in person at Disney Stores, the Disneyland® Resort or Walt Disney World® Resort from now through December 14, 2025. Special Disney Store shopping sprees will take place in all 50 states. 

To learn more about the campaign, visit here. The new film, A Disney Holiday Short: Best Christmas Ever, is streaming now. Watch it below.