Hiya, Monica!
It turns out, I was right there with you, trying to make reservations at Storytellers Cafe for my own family. We can't wait to dine with Goofy as Jacob Marley and Mickey and Minnie as the Cratchits. And Daisy's Holiday Pajama Party looks so cute!
As a regular Guest like you, I don't have direct insider information on the low-level details of how things work at the Disneyland Resort. But as a frequent diner, I'm happy to share things I've observed over the years.
Currently, the Disneyland Resort dining reservation system allows Guests to book available dining reservations up to 60 days in advance. The system usually advances to allow access to a new day of reservation availability at about 6 AM Pacific time. From what I've noticed, the set of available reservations appears to be loaded into the system by each restaurant individually. For the most part, Disneyland Resort restaurants have fairly consistent and routine schedules. So they tend to have their reservation sets pre-loaded and ready to go right at the 60-day mark, typically starting at about 6 AM Pacific time.
A few restaurants, particularly those that feature seasonal menus or events, or that may partner with park entertainment to offer dining packages, or that may have other evolving configurations and staffing plans, may need additional time to develop their set of reservations to load into the system. In some cases, this may mean their reservation sets are not loaded into the reservation system until later in the day relative to other restaurants. At times, reservations may also be loaded a few days later than the typical 60-day mark.
The situation with the recently released Holiday-themed character dining experiences at Storytellers Cafe involved both of these cases. First, we noticed that reservations would not become available until October 2, a few days after the 60-day mark in advance of the first days of the dining events. Then, we saw that reservations weren't showing up at 6 AM that day. I tried to wait as patiently as I could. But I admit I felt a little anxious as I tried to fit in booking our reservations between other obligations that morning. But I was on a special mission and was determined to get those reservations! I noticed around 9:30 AM Pacific time, the reservations for Storytellers Cafe became available for my upcoming travel dates. Finally, I was so happy to be able to book those reservations! I hope you have been able to do so by now too!
I hope you have a happy holiday season at the Disneyland Resort, Monica!
~Tony