I took my daughter to Walt Disney World in November and it snowed. Don t get the wrong idea. We were not victims of a meteorological vacation from hell.

On the contrary. The fall Florida weather on our four-day, three-night jaunt was close to perfect: sunny and warm enough for swimming during the day, refreshingly cool at night. Not nearly cool enough for real snow, but just right for savoring fake snow, which is the only kind of frozen water you re likely to encounter in Orlando outside of a cold drink.

Cora, 10, and I flew south looking to experience something besides the usual Disney World attractions. We were looking for a taste of winter holiday magic Disney-style. And we found it.

Starting in mid-November, Disney hauls in impressively gigantic Christmas trees, festoons the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, EPCOT and Disney-MGM Studios with holiday decorations, and unleashes a variety of seasonal spectacles. There s another, perhaps even more exciting bonus to showing up in the weeks leading up to the Christmas vacation week crush: short lines in the theme parks and lower rates at Disney hotels. Except for Thanksgiving weekend, late fall ranks as one of the least crowded times of year at Disney World.

That means you can do much more with much less stress - and enjoy the pre-holiday festivities at the same time. We did not have to wait more than 15 minutes for even the most popular rides; most of the time we were under way in less than five minutes. While Disney s FASTPASS (which allows you to get on an express line during a designated time period) can be a time and sanity saver, wait times were so reasonable we didn t need to use the system.

We spent most of our first full day in Disney World s biggest (in acreage) theme park, the Animal Kingdom, doing the excellent Kilimanjaro Safari ride, the Festival of the Lion King show and the cool It s Tough to be a Bug 3-D show. Disney World s newest attraction, Finding Nemo - the Musical, was still in its test phase and, alas, not available for viewing, but it s expected to be fully operational any day now, and the advance reviews are enthusiastic. As daylight faded, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom for the year s first Mickey s Very Merry Christmas Party, an event that takes place every couple of days or so through Dec.

22. Access to Mickey s Christmas bash comes at a price: $45.95 plus tax for ages 10 and over, $37.

95 plus tax for ages 3-9 (with advance purchase, tickets are $6 less on select dates). Even if you ve already purchased a ticket for the Magic Kingdom that day, you ll need to buy a separate ticket for the Very Merry Christmas Party. If you don t mind spending the extra bucks, it s worth it.

Visitors without tickets are cleared from the park by 7 p.m. and the Magic Kingdom is yours until midnight.

While lines are already short this time of year, they re much shorter during the Very Merry Christmas Party. If you want to ride a super-popular attraction such as Space Mountain 10 times in a row, you may never get a better chance. Of course there are goings-on that take place only on Very Merry nights including two shows ( Mickey s Twas the Night Before Christmas and Celebrate the Season ), free cookies and cocoa, a chance to meet Santa Claus, and Disney character dance parties, which offer a chance to dance with some of your favorite characters and snag their autographs.

Cora told me days before we set off to Disney World that she thought collecting autographs of costume-wearing Disney employees was silly; her pronouncement was forgotten the instant she set eyes on Lilo and Stitch. I don t know why these autographs are irresistable to kids, but they are; resistance is futile. The highlight of the evening was Mickey s Very Merry Christmas Parade.

There we were amid the happy throng on old-timey Main Street watching brass bands and floats go by when snowflakes started swirling through the Florida air. Well, not snowflakes exactly. But white stuff (soapflakes perhaps?

) that looked enough like the real thing to put wintry magic into the Magic Kingdom. The following evening we headed to Disney-MGM Studios for another Christmas treat: the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. Have no fear, no heavy metal music is involved: This is not Ozzy Osbourne s family we re talking about.

This twinkling extravaganza, including a giant Mickey Mouse light, comes courtesy of businessman Jennings Osborne, who ran up what was probably the biggest electric bill in Arkansas history in an effort to delight his daughter. Now Osborne s display is lighting up the early 20th century Streets of America backlot area of Disney-MGM. All the building facades, plus trees, wreaths and holiday figures, are covered with lights that dance, or at least seem to as they flucuate in time to a medley of piped-in holiday tunes played loud enough to please Ozzy.

This over-the-top sensory experience reaches artificial perfection when the snowflakes fly and fill the air. You just have to smile when you find yourself walking down on a mock street in a mock movie studio lot enjoying a mock blast of winter. No visitor to Disney World can see and do everything - and that includes the many holiday events.

We didn t have time, for example, to get to EPCOT to see The Lights of Winter synchronized light show or join Mickey and friends at the nightly tree-lighting ceremony or catch one of the big-name narrators telling the Christmas story at the Candlelight Processional (Neil Patrick Harris, Cuba Gooding Jr., Gary Sinise and Marlee Matlin are among those appearing in the coming weeks). But we did see more than enough to know that Christmas spirit - and a touch of Christmas weather - thrives in central Florida.

For more information, go to www.disneyworld.disney.

go.com.

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