In today’s economy, we simply can’t afford to go to the movies as a family. When we went to see Cars 2 and got one large popcorn and two large drinks for 4 people to share, it cost us almost $50.
Our solution is Family Movie Night! Do you do family movie night? My kids love it and beg for it! For a fraction of the cost of what it takes to go to the theater, you can make family movie night at home a real event your kids will look forward to.
Watching Nanny McPhee Returns
RedBox offers new movies for only $1.20 (plus tax) per night. Return them before 9:00PM the next night and you have yourself a deal. TONIGHT enjoy a FREE RedBox rental March 8th ONLY – details on their FB Page!
Blockbuster Express is only $1 per night depending on the release.
I also keep an eye out for deal on movies to buy, on weeks money or time is too tight for trips to RedBox, I pull a movie out of my hidden stash for family movie night, then it gets added to our movie collection.
If you have Netflix, HuluPlus or Amazon Prime, you can use movies from those sources, for no additional cost for the actual movie part of family movie night.
There are also free resources online and you can either watch on the computer or hook your computer to your TV. Crackle, PubDHub, Hulu & YouTube are just a few of the free resources available for movies.
Add some atmosphere by popping some good old fashioned popcorn on the stove (or over the fire in the winter) Make hot chocolate or lemonade. Or, if like us you rarely have coke in your house, buy a liter of coke to serve up with the movie. Make root beer floats. Set out nuts, mints and pretzels. But a couple of $1 boxes of movie candy. Muffin tins with various snack foods are a favorite here at the Lewis house.
Toss a blanket on the floor or cuddle up on the couch under blankets and enjoy some family time. It’s a great way to have family fun on a dime and works well if a family member is too sick or exhausted to go out and do something.
And for once, kool-aid stains and the gum in your carpet won’t be an eyesore, but will add atmosphere and make your movie watching experience more like actually being in the theater. If you’re going for totally authentic feel free to invite your loud, obnoxious uncle and friend with the colicy baby and some teenagers with their cell phones glued to their hands over to watch the movie with you.
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I love your snack tray! how fun!! and thanks for the free code link. we love FREE!
Free is always good! RedBox sends free or discount codes about monthly, so we always try to snag those.
We do pizza and movie night every Friday night with our 2 and 3-year-old girls. They LOVE this tradition and ask all week when it will be Friday. Our current dilemma is finding good movies to watch for this age group. We have Netflix streaming and do Redbox and the library but would love to find a list of favorites for the preschool age.
That’s awesome!
Yeah, I have a hard time here as well. I have boys and boy shows are so violent. All of them. At 5 & 8 they seem to be in between the good wholesome preschool stuff and the more mature stuff…*sigh*
I love your muffin tin idea for snacks! That is so cool! We also do a movie night and love it when the whole family is together in one room. Thanks for sharing about the RedBox free movie. It is too late for me to take advantage of it now, but I will keep my eyes open for the next time!
Check out Muffin TIn Mom some great ideas, we started using the idea when one of mine went through a “I’m not going to eat anything” stage LOL It makes food fun.
Yay! We love family movie nights. I always try to keep some good recommendations in our Netflix instant queue for those nights. My kids thinks it’s a big treat to eat in front of the television, so that’s fun in itself!
Hahaha Mine too! Their little eyes get wide and they ask “we get to eat on the carpet!?!?!?” LOL