Festive Family Movie Night | Butterkist Big Night In

It is that time of year when you want to stay in, keep warm and start rolling out all of those lovely festive traditions that you have as a family. I like to bake my own mince pies, as well as deliver them to neighbours. Not to mention decorating the tree, putting stockings up, and getting festive jammies. But one thing that we do like to do each year (and it started way before we had children), is to have a festive family movie night!

We always plan a proper one where all distractions are away; no phones or iPads allowed. And if we have time, then we try to fit in a few more before the big day itself too (I am still trying to get my husband to watch It’s a Wonderful Life at some point before Christmas. One day)! If you want to make it a tradition for your family, then here are some tips and ideas to help you plan your movie night. They are some of the best things that I remember from my family Christmases growing up.

Put it in the Diary

For us, we have to put everything in the diary or calendar or it is just not going to happen. We are all busy, right? So it needs to be planned in. So grab everyone in the house, and find a date and time that will work for you. It is pretty easy for us at the moment as we just have little ones. But I know it will get harder as the children get older and get even busier.

Pick a Classic Movie

I think a traditional movie night can be tricky to try a new movie. If it ends up being a bit rubbish as you’ve never seen it before, then it can be a big disappointment. But at least at Christmas time, there are so many classics to choose from. Some of our family favourites for a festive night in are Home Alone (both one and two), The Grinch, and Muppet’s Christmas Carol. I just love that they are suitable for all and they are just timeless. They are ones that we watched growing up too, so it is lovely to share with our children. We recently got NowTV and luckily, they are all on there – winning!

Get Plenty of Snacks

The best movie night in needs to have a real cinematic experience, right? The rustle of popcorn in bowls, slurp of drinks, and some chocolates thrown in for good measure. The thing is, we all have different requirements for popcorn in our house; my son loves salty popcorn, my husband and daughter love sweet popcorn, and I am a big of both sweet and salted popcorn. So it just means we have to get plenty variety in for us all to try.

Make Some Games

If your children are younger or get a little distracted easily, then some games to go along with the film can be a really fun idea. Christmas movie bingo could be fun, as they can match up words that they hear in the film or pictures that they see in the film. It mixes things up a bit if you have watched the movie a number of times before.

What are some of your family traditions at Christmas? Is a movie night one of them? Would love to hear what you think!

*collaborative post.