After Monique Coleman's first reading during Epcot's Candlelight Processional last night, the "High School Musical" star had a special holiday thank-you for one young fan in the audience.

You can hear her reading at the special holiday event again tonight and tomorrow. The Candlelight Processional runs through December 30 at the America Gardens Theatre.

For the second year, I participated in Disney's Candlelight Processional at Epcot. Locals know it's a huge volunteer choir singing carols with an orchestra, while a celebrity narrator recounts the biblical story of Jesus' birth.

A portion of the choir is made up of volunteer Disney cast members, and Disney's pro singers, the Voices of Liberty, add their voices too.

It's an incredibly moving experience to be a part of such a large group making that much joyful noise. It's equally as inspirational to watch, as I did for a decade before singing, through my community chorus of Sing Live USA. (info at Singliveusa.com).

The chorus performs standards such as "O Holy Night" and "O Come All Ye Faithful," but the arrangements are like nothing you've heard before. From a singer's point of view, some of them are darn tricky, but the blending of all the voices is a beautiful sound to hear.

Click through for the scoop on our guest celebrity.

Add Neil Patrick Harris to the list of Candlelight Processional narrators for the upcoming holiday season. The event, an Epcot tradition, features stars reading the Christmas story backed by a mass choir and 50-piece orchestra.

Harris, who has appeared in Processional before and sometimes appears as if he could sing along, joins the squadron of three-named actors on the list. You can also see Brian Stokes Mitchell, Steven Curtis Chapman and Edward James Olmos. No word if John O'Hurley is going to morph into John Gerald O'Hurley or if Courtney Vance will be Courtney Bernard Vance for the event.

Harris, who stars on the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother, will suit up as the reader Dec. 1-3. The event runs three times nightly Nov. 28-Dec. 30. Times are 5, 6:45, 8:15 p.m. at the American Gardens Theater in World Showcase.

For a full list, go to www.disneyworld.com/holidays and click on "Holidays Around the World."

Actors Angela Bassett and Courtney Vance have joined the lineup of narrators for Candlelight Processional, the part of Epcot's holiday offerings. The couple, who have been married since 1997, will read during the performances of Dec. 28-30, according to www.disneyworld.com. Bassett is lending her voice to the upcoming Walt Disney Pictures animated project, The Princess and the Frog, currently set to be released Dec. 25, 2009.

Bassett and Vance will also be appearing together as a married couple in the upcoming season of ER on NBC.

Their addition at Epcot moves Marlee Matlin earlier in the lineup. She'll now be at Candlelight Dec. 10-12, which in turn relocates Monique Coleman a few days to Dec. 13-15.

It’s never too early to plan your Christmas theme-park activities, is it?

According to allears.net and other sources, the narrators for Epcot’s Candlelight Processional have been announced for 2008.

The schedule (subject to change, of course):

November 28-30 John O'Hurley

December 1-3 Patti LaBelle (Tentative)

December 4-6 Brian Stokes Mitchell

December 7-9 Virginia Madsen

December 10-12 Monique Coleman

December 13-15 TBD

December 16-18 Chita Rivera

December 19-21 Abigail Breslin

December 22-24 Steven Curtis Chapman

December 25-27 Edward James Olmos

December 28-30 Marlee Matlin

If you’ve never attended Epcot’s annual telling of the Christmas story, you really should consider it. With its celebrity reading, mass choir and full orchestra, it can put even the most Scrooge-like of persons in the holiday spirit. I know; I enjoyed it last year during one of Monique Coleman’s appearances.

And plan your meal packages early because they can sell out.

In Sunday's Sentinel, we have a Newsmaker Q&A with John Sinclair, chair of the Rollins College music department and conductor/artistic director of Winter Park's Bach Festival Society. But theme-park types might know him as the frequent conductor (more than 50 times this year) of the Candlelight Processional at Epcot. (Q&A LINK HERE)

Although he wouldn't fess up to me about his dream narrator or his favorite past narrator, he did tell me a nice related story that stars a Rollins grad in a cardigan sweater. It's like a story from the Land of Make-Believe.

A few thoughts from a trip to Candlelight Processional this week are below. It was fellow ranger Mary Frances' first-ever time at the Epcot event.

1. "Rejoice With Exceeding Great Joy" remains my favorite piece, maybe because I don't hear it everywhere else this time of year. If you see someone spinning and shaking a tamborine during this number, be sure and say hello to me. M.F. liked the Hallelujah Chorus, which may well have been the strongest song of the evening.

2. John O'Hurley was our narrator, and we picked this evening because we knew he had an interesting voice. I never thought of it before, but he could definitely pass in a role of televangelist.

3. I only spotted two fainters among the choir members. My understanding from friends is that it's quite warm up there with lighting, body heat and tight quarters. Never lock your knees, gang. Another friend in the choir told me she approved of Mr. O'Hurley. "He added a few personal notes but not too many," she said. "You count the minutes when you're squished like sardines."

It's not often you get to say an actual dream came true, but that's what happened for me on Friday night. SingLive!, a community choir I participate in, was a guest chorus in Disney's Candlelight Processional at Epcot.

Since the first time I saw this holiday show nine years ago, I have wanted to sing in it. The songs range from rousing Christmas anthems to a tender "Silent Night." The singers -- which number in the hundreds for each performance -- are accompanied by an orchestra. And a celebrity guest, basketball star David Robinson, in my case, reads the Christmas story from the Bible.

So did I trip on my choir robe? Set Epcot on fire with my candle? Read on...