The first Disneyland, Holiday, Seasonal or Christmas¹ Pressed Nickel set was offered in 1995 inside the gates of Disneyland Park. This iconic Holiday collection has become one of my favorite Disneyland elongated coin collections. Not to mention the special Holiday sets of three pressed or elongated nickels were also an instant favorite of many other fellow Disneyland pressed coin collectors as well as causal Disneyland souvenir seekers. Each year it seemed a growing number of Disneyland guests lined up to watch the & quot;show" as they pressed their pocket change into the fun, inexpensive treasures. Both the excitement and the number of collectors jumped in 2010 when Disney California Adventure joined Disneyland with their own set of Seasonal nickels. So, from 1995 / 2010 through 2020, there were two awesome sets of three Seasonal nickels each greeting guests at the Disneyland Resort over the Christmas - New Year season. (Images of all the Seasonal pressed nickels are here for your viewing pleasure in this Seasonal Nickel Guide.)

At times, the Seasonal nickel press machines were very busy as people frantically pressed coins for themselves, friends, and fellow collectors before the machines were retired. Some folks also liked to enclose these little treasures in Christmas cards for a list of friends that often were anxiously waiting to add the most resent coins to their prized collections. The machines usually arrived between early November and late December and taken offstage to be retired between mid January and early February. Sometimes the coin press machines were removed as early as late December / early January! So, it was important not to delay your visit to the park. As you can see from the onstage / offstage dates noted for each set below, the window of availability was often short.

These yearly Holiday nickel sets included some very popular features: (1) The coins were offered consistently every year since 1995 / 2010. (2) The coins were usually inscribed with & quot;New Years", & quot;Happy Holidays" or & quot;Season's Greetings" plus the year of issue. (3) From 2005 on the coins have also included some amazing stampbacks. (4) They are all pressed on AWESOME NICKELS! :-) In short, The Seasonal Nickel collection is a very cool part of the complete Disneyland elongated nickels collection.

As you may have noticed, online auctions that started in the late 1990s became a major source of Disneyland pressed coins especially for collectors that could not visit the Disneyland Resort. This new source of Disney pressed coins introduced the hobby to many new collectors around the world. Soon, the small, mostly local, group of Disney pressed coin collectors became a larger and growing group of enthusiasts from both near and far. As a result, the earlier Disneyland coins, pressed by only a small group of people, before the online auctions and the internet became wildly popular, have been getting harder and harder to find as new collectors seek to complete their collections. If you are starting to collect Disneyland Holiday Nickels or really any other Disneyland pressed coins, issued before around 2000 twenty plus years later, you may still be able to find most, maybe even all the coins needed for a complete onstage collection... eventually. Some pressed nickels in this collection have greatly appreciated in value and many have become very hard to find. But all can be found, purchased, or traded for if you are a & quot;tenacious" advanced Disney pressed coin collector. Boomer suggests that the sooner you start, the sooner you will enjoy this fun hobby and the easier it will be to own a complete collection of these beloved Disneyland Seasonal pressed nickels.

Happy collecting!
Boomer

2022 Note: Sadly in early 2022, we had to re-write the above article in past tense as the series has apparently been ended. As per our news posts and guide updates, in 2020 Disneyland Park and California Adventure Holiday nickel sets were skipped for the first time since their introductions in 1995 and 2010 respectively. The 2021 holiday sets were skipped too. Also, after the post-COVID reopening, the resorts' coin press machines were systematically converted to vending-style penny presses which furnish the pennies that are pressed. No longer are nickels pressed and guests can no longer press their own coins in these new machines. In acknowledgment of this new & quot;business model", we are forced to believe that the Disneyland Resort Holiday nickel collections are now & quot;closed". The legendary Disneyland Resort Holiday pressed nickel sets appear to have moved on becoming nostalgic reminders of some of the best years of Disneyland and of Disney pressed coin collecting.

¹Although this set is sometimes called & quot;The Christmas Nickels Set", the word & quot;Christmas" has not been inscribed on a single nickel in this collection. If you would like to collect or gift & quot;elongated / pressed souvenirs" with a true Christmas greeting spelled out on them, Tokyo Disneyland happily celebrates this historic international Holiday with several Christmas themed and inscribed pressed medals.

This page has only pictures of the Seasonal Nickel Sets, for more information about these coins, please view the respective Disneyland elongated coin guide pages or use the & quot;Google ParkPennies" search box at the top of most pages.