by Kristy Buda

A great way to get excited about a Disney trip is to watch movies!  I like to make these movie nights even more fun with a themed dinner and activities.

First I come up with a menu (Pinterest is wonderful for ideas.) and then add in a few fun activities followed by the movie choice for the night.  You can make these movie nights as elaborate or as simple as you want.

Now that my kids are older, they like to participate in the planning and cooking.  This is also a great way to “prepare” everyone and refresh your memories of certain movies if you haven’t seen them in a while.

Here are just a few theme ideas we’ve done. Click through the slideshows to see more of each.

Peter Pan

Some ideas for the menu items would be:

  • Pirate Ship Pizzas with Pixie Dust (french bread pizzas with parmesan cheese and oregano sprinkled on top completed with a sail made from a skewer and paper)
  • Fruit Swords (skewers with fresh fruit)
  • Pirate Teeth (corn kernels)
  • Treasure Punch with Floating Rubies (a clear soda like Sierra Mist with ice cubes made from red koolaid or a red juice)
  • Imaginary Pie (food coloring mixed with Cool Whip in a pie tin).

For an activity I created an old treasure map from a brown paper bag and left clues all over the house.  They eventually discovered the treasure box full of gold “chocolate” coins in the oven!

We’ve also played “Pin the Feather on Peter’s Hat” and, of course, had fun with face-painting.

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Cars

Menu ideas include:

  • Lightning’s Speedy Sandwiches (subs work great for this with toothpicks to hold the cucumber wheels on)
  • Mackaroni Salad (just a simple macaroni salad with some veggies mixed in)
  • Car Oil (grape koolaid)
  • Filmore’s Traffic Lights (wafer cookies with frosting and M&M’s or skittles added to look like traffic lights)
  • Leaning Tower of Tires (chocolate donuts stacked up)

Our activity was creating a race track for matchbox cars.

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Dumbo

Menu ideas include:

  • Circus Dogs (you could either have regular hot dogs or corn dogs)
  • Roasted Peanuts
  • Elephant Ears (these are super easy to make)
  • Popcorn.

We’ve also had nachos, pretzels & cheese, cotton candy, lollipops and pink koolaid. This is a sugary party!

For activities we have played “Pin the feather on Dumbo’s Hat” and even gone to the circus!

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Toy Story

Menu ideas included:

  • Pizza Planet Pizza (super easy)
  • Ken & Barbie’s Mac & Cheese
  • Sarge’s Salad (just some simple veggies)
  • Mr. Potato Heads (baked potatoes with toppings)
  • Green Alien Milkshakes (just add some green food coloring)

For our activity we had to find Buzz’s moon rocks (which were pieces of tin foil crumpled up with fruit snacks inside hidden throughout the house) and once they found them all they got a prize!

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This theme is great because the menu could work for any of the three movies!

Wreck It Ralph

This was a really fun night! Our activities included a Sugar Rush candy bar where you make your own race car just like Vanellope and a Wreck It Ralph type game where we would “wreck” a “building.”

I had cut little windows out of a cardboard box then taped tissue paper to the back. The kids had to throw a bouncy ball through all of the windows. They loved this! Once they completed “wrecking” the building, they received hero medals.

We also had to do the “Coke & Mentos” experiment just like in the movie!

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Menu ideas include:

  • Dr. Eggman’s Deviled Eggs
  • Sonic the Hedgehog’s Rings (onion rings)
  • Tapper Root Beer
  • PacMan Personal Pizzas (we simply cut a piece out to make it look like Pacman)
  • Hero’s Duty Medals (chocolate coins).

Winnie the Pooh

Menu items included:

  • Chicken Tenders & Fresh Veggies with Pooh’s Honey Mustard Dip
  • Rabbit’s Honey Glazed Carrots
  • Piglet’s Muddy Puddle Pudding (just a simple chocolate pudding with teddy grahams on top) and
  • Eyeore’s Grumpy Juice (any fruit juice or koolaid).

For an activity we did a simple coloring page printed out from the internet and we popped balloons to find treats inside!

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A Bug’s Life

This is a fun one to have a “picnic”… if we had nicer weather, we would’ve been outside, but we’re in Wisconsin!

Menu ideas include:

  • Bug’s Juice (Apple Juice with the word Apple crossed out and replaced with Bug’s)
  • Flik’s Fried Chicken
  • Ladybugs (strawberries with raisins or chocolate chips on top for spots)
  • Worms in Dirt desserts (chocolate pudding with oreo crumbs on top and gummy worms crawling out served in planter pots).

For an activity we went outside and caught bugs!

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Muppets

Menu items included:

  • Kermit’s Kabobs (fruit on skewers with a Kermit made from an apple & marshmallows)
  • Scooter’s Dip & Chips (cheese dip with egg whites for eyes & carrot sticks for hair)
  • Swedish Chef’s meatballs (just swedish meatballs in the crockpot!)
  • Miss Piggy’s in a Blanket (I’m sure she didn’t appreciate this one)
  • Sam the Eagle’s American Patriot’s Root Beer
  • Fozzie’s Dessert Bars were Cheerio Bars with a caramel sauce drizzled over them to resemble his fur.

Our activity for this night was making puppets!

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Countdown Party

We have even done a “100 Days till Disney” party where we made all sorts of “famous Disney food” — including turkey legs, dinosaur ribs, Dole Whips, Goofy’s Candy Co. treats and more.  The possibilities are endless!

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To us, half the fun of a trip is the countdown and the excitement that comes checalong with it.

I hope you can use some of these ideas to create your own memories!

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Host a Disney Movie Night!
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