8 Ideas For Family Movie Night At Home
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With these 8 ideas for having a family movie night at home, you can make special memories together any night of the week.
I’m Keri and on my blog, One Mama’s Daily Drama, I love sharing easy ideas to spend time together as a family. Having a family movie night is a great way to spend time together relaxing at home and more often than not, our movie choices start some great conversations.
Since my kids were little, we’ve had a family movie night on Fridays with a special meal and a movie that we can all enjoy. Sometimes we do something simple, like ordering pizza and watching whatever is new on Netflix; sometimes we go all out with a theme for our food, movie, and other activities.
How to Have a Family Movie Night
A few simple craft projects can take dinner and a movie to the next level. Most of these are done with supplies you probably already have around the house.
What you need:
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Craft Tools Needed:
Supplies Needed:
- Sharpie pens
- Empty cardboard box (mine was from a package of ramen noodles)
- Wrapping paper
- Card stock
- Washi tape
- Scotch tape
- Letterboard
- Popcorn, candy, cookies, or other snack foods and drinks
Instructions:
1. Choose a family movie night theme
Start by choosing a theme for your movie night at home. For example, our theme is LEGO so I picked “The LEGO Movie” and made all of our craft decorations to match. You can keep it simple with a color scheme or go really detailed and choose foods that match your movie.
2. Choose your movie
Sometimes it can be hard to find a movie that everyone can agree on, especially if you have kids in a wide age range. There are some great newer movies that appeal to kids and adults, like “The LEGO Movie” I mention below. But my husband and I have had a great time introducing our kids to the movies we loved at their ages.
3. Make the movie tickets
Surprise your kids with their own custom movie tickets with the details about your family movie night.
To make my tickets, I cut yellow card stock into a 3×5-inch rectangle. I used a pencil to trace a penny on each corner to make the cutouts.
Then I used a ruler to make straight lines and wrote in our movie night details.
To finish the tickets, I went over the pencil with a blue Sharpie pen.
4. Make the snack trays
What’s a movie night without snacks? To make the snack trays, I covered an empty cardboard box with wrapping paper. Cut and fold the paper just like you would for wrapping a gift, but leave the top open.
Use washi tape to cover the seam around the edge and clear scotch tape to hold the ends closed.
5. Gather or make food containers
For the popcorn bags, I cut a 3×3-inch square from the yellow card stock and wrote the word “popcorn” and used a ruler to draw the decorative stripes.
I used yellow washi tape to hold the label on the bag.
I used empty water bottles to hold fruit punch. These are nice because they can close and are less likely to spill. I picked up the movie theater box candy and the snack-sized cookie packs with my groceries.
Some other family movie night food ideas are:
- Fresh cut fruit
- Yogurt tubes
- Hotdogs
- Nachos
6. Set up the “now showing” letter board
I used a letter board as a sign that reads:
Now showing The LEGO Movie 7 PM
You could also make a sign with card stock or poster board and markers.
7. Optional: Invite other movie night guests
Even if grandparents don’t live nearby, they can watch the same movie at home and join your party virtually. You can now set up a Netflix watch party by installing a Google Chrome add-on to your desktop or laptop computer that connects multiple Netflix accounts via a chatbox.
Alternatively, you could simply create an event on Facebook or a group text message to talk while you watch.
8. Turn family movie night into a family party
If you want to go all out, come up with a few more activities to match your movie night at home. Here are a few ideas:
- Have everyone dress up as their favorite character in the movie you’re planning to watch. Don’t forget to take photos!
- Plan a game to play either before or after the movie.
- Write out a few discussion questions to get everyone talking after the movie ends.
- Who was your favorite character and why?
- How did you feel when…?
- What surprised you the most?
- Why do you think…?
- How could the movie have ended differently?
Family movie night is a great way to spend time together, no matter how old your kids are. It can be as simple or creative as you like.
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What’s Next?
If you enjoyed this family movie night at home then you’ll enjoy these other fun family time ideas too.
Family Dinner Themes for Movie Night and Game Night at Home
Organized Game Closet Makeover for Board Game Storage
10 Rainy Day Activities Outside
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