Post family Disney-theme night ideas HERE!

[Dad's Plan]

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999) / Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (2004) - Double Feature

December is here, and we will be enjoying Family Movie Nights until Christmas. To kick it all off, we began with a Disney Double Feature. We enjoyed Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. Both are about an hour long and feature a number of short, Holiday themed tales starring Mickey and the gang.

I don't know what it is, but these two movies just do not have the same charm and heart that earlier Disney Holiday themed shorts have. This seems more slapped together to make a buck. Particularly Twice Upon a Christmas, which ditches the traditional animation in favor of CGI. And the real problem is that it is not very good CGI. It looks as though the images were never fully rendered. There is a lack of detail to the characters, and I feel that takes away from the stories. However, if you are 5, I guess that doesn't matter very much.

Here I have two movies where there is no consistent setting, location or plot, so what do you do to pair a menu to that? I thought about researching some of the restaurant menus at Disney to see if they had any Christmas fare on the menu. This way the theme could be like a trip to Disney. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything that worked. So then I decided that since we are watching a bunch of little stories, why not make a dinner make of little bites. An assortment of foods that are small, and quick to eat. So I made a menu that I did not get a good picture of, unfortunately. So I made a Christmas tree, and placed ornaments on it that listed the foods that would be served. Because the photo I have is of such poor quality, here are the foods that we enjoyed:

• Cocktail Meatballs in Gravy
• Spiced Nuts
• Prosciutto, Sage & Goat Cheese Pinwheels
• Potato Puffs
• Arancini
• Mini Pizzas
• Pigs in a Blanket
• Side Salad

The other big issues I had with this movie was what to drink. When I made up the drink bands, I couldn't think of anything and came up with the remarkable generic name "Donald's Drink." Given one of the shorts, I guess that should have been hot chocolate, but I have that for another Family Movie Night this month, so I didn't want to do that... I ended up using Eggnog. Isabel loved it, Ethan hated it, so after a sip or two, he requested milk instead.

It was a big spread, and we ate while we watched the first movie. We skipped the Concession Box for this one, and instead, we all enjoyed Milk and Christmas Cookies.

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Dad's Plan]

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

With the dawn of 2016, we kick off a new year of Family Movie Nights! We started it all off with Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland. Based on the poems of Lewis Carroll, the story is more of a sting of connected poems, than one long plot line. Oh, and the Mad Hatter is not a warrior, there are no dragons, and Alice never puts on armor in this version.

And for the dinner, we had, what else, a tea party with unbirthday cake.

I did not make drink bands for this as we used tea cups for the tea, and the bands didn't wouldn't work on them. We made a couple pots of tea (no photos of that - sorry) and Tea Sandwiches. In the end, I substituted the Apple Cheddar for a Ham Salad just because I had more of the Ham ingredients on hand. And for the Jam Sandwich, I made Strawberry Jam and Cream Cheese Sandwiches.

I also made fresh Apricot Scones. These turned out really well! The biggest key to success when making scones is to not over-mix the dough. By not over-mixing the dough, the scones come out very light and flaky, otherwise, it may come out a bit too dense and dry. We served the scones with Orange Marmalade and Strawberry Preserves - no clotted cream, sorry.

And we finished off our Tea Party with Unbirthday CupCakes. To make it a little more stance and more in keeping with the movie, I baked the cupcakes in tea cups. I under-filled the cups, so that when the cake rose, it would remain under the rim of the cup. That way, I when I iced the cake, I could level off the top and make it look smooth and flat, hiding the cake underneath! This was the big hit with the kids!

After our splendid tea party, we sat down as watched the movie together. It was a bit of a it and miss with the kids. They found parts funny, particularly when Alice would grow or shrink, but they did not care for the Queen of Hearts. I believe that they tend to prefer a movie m=with a more linear story, which does not bode well for our next Family Movie Night - Fantasia!

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[jmccoy18]

Thanks for all these great ideas! I think we will start themed family nights starting a year out from our trip, maybe one a month.

 

[Deffenm]

We don't have a trip planned until 2017 so we are going to start these up again in Feb. Does anyone have any ideas for Inside Out?

 

[Gracefulskinny]

We don't have a trip planned until 2017 so we are going to start these up again in Feb. Does anyone have any ideas for Inside Out?

There should be a post from a few months back that I posted with some. (Unfortunately no pictures though.)

 

[The3rdDisneyBoy]

Hey everyone,

So I am not trying to self-promote or anything but I started a blog about a year ago and it's primary focus (at least for now) has been focusing on the Disney Nights we do at our house. This thread is really what started us on that whole thing way, way back so I thought maybe you guys would be interested?

We have been counting down to my 40th by doing Disney nights around my top 40 Disney movies (though in no particular order.) The link is below and with only 3 weeks left until our trip, they are almost all done. Cinderella was our last.

The blog will be focused more on Disney as a whole coming up (though there are a few non-Disney night posts in there already) but I have had to dedicate most of it to this endeavor until this trip...

If you're interested, check it out

https://weheartdisney.wordpress.com/

 

[aharbin88]

Hey everyone,

So I am not trying to self-promote or anything but I started a blog about a year ago and it's primary focus (at least for now) has been focusing on the Disney Nights we do at our house. This thread is really what started us on that whole thing way, way back so I thought maybe you guys would be interested?

We have been counting down to my 40th by doing Disney nights around my top 40 Disney movies (though in no particular order.) The link is below and with only 3 weeks left until our trip, they are almost all done. Cinderella was our last.

The blog will be focused more on Disney as a whole coming up (though there are a few non-Disney night posts in there already) but I have had to dedicate most of it to this endeavor until this trip...

If you're interested, check it out

https://weheartdisney.wordpress.com/

Awesome idea! Thanks for the heads up!

 

[The3rdDisneyBoy]

Awesome idea! Thanks for the heads up!

Sure thing!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Hey everyone,

So I am not trying to self-promote or anything but I started a blog about a year ago and it's primary focus (at least for now) has been focusing on the Disney Nights we do at our house. This thread is really what started us on that whole thing way, way back so I thought maybe you guys would be interested?

We have been counting down to my 40th by doing Disney nights around my top 40 Disney movies (though in no particular order.) The link is below and with only 3 weeks left until our trip, they are almost all done. Cinderella was our last.

The blog will be focused more on Disney as a whole coming up (though there are a few non-Disney night posts in there already) but I have had to dedicate most of it to this endeavor until this trip...

If you're interested, check it out

https://weheartdisney.wordpress.com/

Um...I am now officially addicted to your blog...

 

[The3rdDisneyBoy]

Um...I am now officially addicted to your blog...

Aw thanks...Did you check out Hercules night and Monsters Inc.?

Here is Hercules:
https://weheartdisney.wordpress.com...ng-down-to-daddys-birthday-night-34-hercules/

And Monsters Inc.
https://weheartdisney.wordpress.com...own-to-daddys-birthday-night-35-monsters-inc/

REALLY glad you like the blog. I love writing it.

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Aw thanks...Did you check out Hercules night and Monsters Inc.?

Here is Hercules:
https://weheartdisney.wordpress.com...ng-down-to-daddys-birthday-night-34-hercules/

And Monsters Inc.
https://weheartdisney.wordpress.com...own-to-daddys-birthday-night-35-monsters-inc/

REALLY glad you like the blog. I love writing it.

Oh, I have read ALL Of them....

 

[seasonality]

Hi there! Loving the info provided here...THANK YOU!!

A little background on us: 5 years ago, I collected my nieces and two youngest kids and we spent an extended weekend doing fun stuff away from home. We had such a good time that I did it again the following year, and brought along my Mom. Thus, the Annual Aunt Season (& Nana) Weekend was born! So, for the past 4 years we normally go over Labor Day for 5 days and try to incorporate a trip to a zoo we haven't been to before, an amusement park we haven't been to together before, a museum, and lots of hotel pool time. This year is the 5th Annual AS&N Weekend and I am so excited to have surprised the kids (son 12, daughter 10, niece 9, niece 7, niece 6) with a trip to Disney World to celebrate!!!

So, in anticipation of our trip this August/September, we are doing monthly Disney Movie Nights. Our first with be Beauty & the Beast themed. Below is the invitation we mailed to all the kids:



...and here's the "movie tickets" we made for admission and also a prize drawing:



Thanks again for all of your ideas - looking forward to next Friday, and to all of your ideas and excitement as we anticipate our trips together!!

 

[Dad's Plan]

Inside Out (2015)

This one was a lot of fun, and as stated above, Pixar is amazing at sticking you on an emotional roller coaster throughout a movie. This was a very fun movie with a great concept, even if it did steal from Herman's Head. If you don't get that reference, you are clearly much younger than I am. Well, when thinking about what I wanted to pair with this movie, it was an easy leap to get to comfort food! And that is what we did, but more about that in a moment.

Dinner for this Movie Night was great! I made an entire meal of fun comfort food, all in bite sized bits. We had Mini grilled cheeses, which was a last minute addition, and therefore not on the menu, home made Mac & Cheese, Mini Pizzas, and French Fries. I was really pleased with the way the meal came out and it looked great.

For the concession boxes, I carried on the idea of comfort food, under the name of Bing-Bong's Bites. This dessert, as seen below, featured fresh pop corn, 3 cookies, a small lollipop, peanuts, and the two big themed items: Cotton Candy - representing Bing-Bong, and the Jelly Beans, or Memory Orbs.

For the drink, this was another movie that didn't have anything that was super specific to the drink, therefore, I was able to do a clever word play so that any drink could work. In this case, we had Wild Mood Swigs. The pun played perfectly for the plot of the movie. In the end, I think it was a strawberry juice blend.

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Dad's Plan]

Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955)
Davy Crockett & the River Pirates (1956)

King of the Wild Frontier indeed. This week we watched the Disney double feature of Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier and The River Pirates. These two movies came out in the 1950s as half hour segments for The Wonderful World of Disney that used to air long before Disney had their own channels. Later, these episodes were released as these two movies.

For this Family Movie Night, we broke out our Coon Skin Caps and enjoyed a rustic meal as we marveled in the adventures of the Frontiersman, congressman, adventurer, and American Hero.

The kids also each got a Coon Skin Cap to embrace the spirit of the movies.

For dinner we enjoyed Pioneer Stew (although it states Bear Meat, it was just regular beef. Just a fun edit for the kids.) Additionally we had Corn Dodgers, like a free form corn bread that, according to my research, would have been common around the time of Davy Crockett. It was a simple meal with a nice clean plating.

For the drink, I couldn't think of anything significant to choose, so I just called it Davy's Drink so that I could use anything that struck me without having to reprint a menu. In the end, I just went with good wholesome milk.

For dessert, the kids just had an assortment in their concession boxes with nothing that was specific to this movie. In the end, the kids had a great time, and Ethan wore his new cap (that actually belonged to his father so many years ago) everywhere he went for many days after the movie. All and all, a big success.

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Dad's Plan]

A Bug's Life (1998)

Welcome Spring! And, I guess, the bugs that come along with it... However, looking to make lemonade from lemons, we celebrated by watching Disney•Pixar's A Bug's Life. This was the second Pixar film to come out after Toy Story. I had not seen this in years, and seemed to remember that it wasn't that great of a movie. And while it is certainly better than Cars, it is no where near as good as most of their more recent fare. Upon watching it again with the kids, I still stand by my assertion of the movie. The kids seemed to feel the same way. They enjoyed it, but once it was over there were no crazy requests to watch it over and over for the rest of the weekend. It just was.

For dinner, we went with the classic picnic theme for A Bug's Life. A little fried chicken and some German potato salad. whenever I make potato salad, I always opt for German style, as I can't stand mayonnaise. I not sure why that is. I like all the ingredients of Mayo, but hate the end product. Not that this matters to the post. For the fried chicken, if you have never made it at home, it is a lot easier than you may think. My biggest piece of advise is to pan fry in a cast iron pan. It just tastes so great! And, according to some, like my wife, it is even better cold the next day.

For our dessert, we enjoyed Worms in Dirt. Easy to make and always a hit with the kids. (The adults love it too, but tend to be more reluctant to admit that fact.) Instant pudding, then a layer of crushed Oreos, more pudding, more Oreos, and gummy worms stuck in at different levels.

Because this dessert was so sweet and rich, we passed on the Concession Box for this movie, and just went with this treat.

For dessert, the kids just had an assortment in their concession boxes with nothing that was specific to this movie. In the end, the kids had a great time, and Ethan wore his new cap (that actually belonged to his father so many years ago) everywhere he went for many days after the movie. All and all, a big success.

And finally, the drink. I know. I know. Bug Juice!!! Why wasn't it Bug Juice??? I don't know. But we had Picnic Punch. Sorry no photos of that. We had a basic fruit punch drink - nice, simple and easy.

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Dad's Plan]

Star Wars: Episode VII, The Force Awakens (2015)

Ok. So I am probably one of the very few - particularly of my generation - who did not see The Force Awakens in the theater. Needless to say, I did pre-order the movie on iTunes, so I had it the day it was released - April 1st. Not being one to let an opportunity like this pass me by, I quickly decided to play a April Fool's Joke on my family.

The kids were having school over at their grandparents this past week, so when I dropped them off, I invited my parents over to join us for Family Movie Night explaining that it would be a lot of fun and totally worth their time, but I didn't tell them what the movie would be. And they didn't ask, so that worked out very well in my favor.

The first thing I had to do was to think of the worst movie I could that would be appropriate for a Family Movie Night - not that I would actually ever choose this movie... And I came up with Mike Meyer's The Cat in the Hat.

I made up these tickets when I got home, and dropped them in the kids mail boxes for when they got back from school. They were very excited when they returned home and I showed them the trailer of the movie so that they would get super excited and spend dinner telling Gramma & Poppa all about this great movie that we were going to watch. I realized that I was playing a dangerous game in that they might actually want to see The Cat in the Hat, and honestly, that was not going to happen!

The kids, for one holiday or another, received a game called I Can Do That! game. It is full of Cat in the Hat drawings, and similar game pieces.

I was in such a rush for planning this, and because I had to deviate from the typical decoration, I forgot to take pictures of everything. This also meant that I could not use the menu that I designed because that would have ruined the surprise!




Now, I did keep the menu the same, but just didn't have one on the table. For dinner, we had Tie Sliders with First Order Fries. It was a very casual meal. Of course, I didn't call the food by these names at the table. Nope. I spent the entire meal talking about The Cat in the Hat. What great make-up effects the movie has, how it is really silly and the kids would love it. How artistically the took a children's book with no real plot and less than 100 words and stretched it out into a nearly two hour movie. Needless to say, my wife and parents were not exactly looking forward to our viewing event.

After dinner and the dishes were cleared, we all settled down to watch the movie. It was only then that everyone was let in on the movie that we were really going to watch. You could feel the relief wash over the adults, and the kids, big star wars lovers that they are, were equally excited!

At this time, I went and grabbed the kids' concession boxes that included the real movie ticket and their drink with the appropriate drink band on it.

So we watched the movie that probably everyone reading this post has already seen, if not many times. It was a great night and a lot of fun! It's not often that I can so successfully pull off an April Fool's prank as well as this one!

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Dad's Plan]

American Legends (2001)

What an amazing twist, the morning after a Family Movie night, the kids awoke to find yet another ticket for a movie and meal. The only difference was this was no dinner, this was for a Family Movie Morning! We enjoyed our very first morning movie with a meal. And for this, as we had just been studying Tall Tales in school, we enjoyed American Legends, a Disney collection of tales about Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, John Henry, and Casey Jones.

It was an early morning, and no one was able to get out of their pajamas, and we were right into the shows! I got the idea to do a morning movie and meal because this movie just lent itself so easily to a breakfast. Much like the four little stories in the movie, we snacked on a breakfast that represented the different vignettes - except for the Brave Engineer. I had no idea what I could bring to that, so I just doubled up with Johnny Appleseed. After all, how difficult is it to come up with apple themed food.

We have Flapjacks with Maine Maple Syrup for Paul Bunyan, Steel Cut Oatmeal for John Henry, the Steel Driving Man, and the Apple Turnover for Johnny Appleseed. And to drink, why fresh apple cider, of course.

And that was our first Family Movie Morning. and a wonderful success it was. We may just have to find another breakfast themed movie to do!

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Dad's Plan]

Fantasia (1940)

Into the wonderful world of music as we travel back to the 1940s with Disney's Fantasia. This was a great movie to watch with the kids. I was a little concerned about this due to the ending piece with the demon in the mountain, but in the end, it didn't phase the kids at all. They enjoyed it, some bits a bit more than the others, but as it is more a visual interpretation of music rather than a cohesive plot driven story, I can't complain too much. What was also a bit challenging was the fact this this movie has a run time of a little over 2 hours. It was at times very hard to get the kids to stop squirming. The final element that brought a challenge to this movie was that there is no dialogue, which means that there are no point f references for what to do for food.

So I thought about this for a while and came up with the idea of doing little bites that could be representative of the countries of the composers that were featured in this movie. While not exact, we had foods representing France, Russia, German and Italy. So here is the issue. It was a great idea in theory, but once it came time to make all of these elements, man it was labor intensive and time consuming! I had to rush just to get everything going at a reasonable time. Therefore, I apologize for the sloppiness of the food, but the project just kept getting bigger and bigger.

So what did we eat?

• Italy
  • Arancini - Fried rice balls stuffed with Mozzerella
  • Crostini - with goat cheese and olive tapenade.
• France
  • Gruyeres - Gruyere cheese puffs
• Germany
  • Sausage in croute - This was actually just going to be mini sausages, but after making the pastry dough for the piroshki, I decided to make these en croute. So we had our own version of pigs in a blanket.
• Russia
  • Piroshki - this is very similar to an empanada. These are baked buns stuffed with meat and vegetable. Ours was ground beef and onions.

As I said, it was incredibly labor intensive for such a small group. Some of the food came out better than others, and I have no one to blame but myself. As I said, it was taking on a bit too much in the time I had for the size of our group. Leson to learn for the next time!


For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Dad's Plan]

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

On our most recent adventure, we headed deep below the sea to a lost world with one of Disney's more recent, but lesser know films, Atlantis: The Lost Empire. This is one of the few Disney movies that I had not seen before we watched it for Family Movie Night.

So the only real food reference in the movie was Cookie (the Cook - go figure) listing the for major food groups as Beans, Bacon, Whiskey and Lard. Well, that's not a lot to go on for a dinner... So I did the next logical thing. We had Sub Sandwiches. When I developed the menu, I figured that we would have Subs, and I would figure the rest out later. And, well, that's exactly what I did. Based on what I had from leftovers, I made a modified Cubano sandwich. EXCELLENT! We had leftover roast pork tenderloin, bacon, provolone cheese, and mustard. I then threw that on the panini press. That made it wonderfully crispy and crunchy on the outside, and wonderful combination of flavors within. Sorry, no photos. We were running late on this night, and I forgot to snap the pictures.

As I mentioned, the only real reference to beverages in the movie was to whiskey. As tempting as it may seem at times, I was not going to give the kids a big glass of Johnny Walker! I mean, lets be honest, I'm too cheap to share that with them. I'm kidding. They have to buy their own.

So for their drink, they had Cookie's Coffee. Mostly because of the alliteration. And no, they did not get coffee. Not even iced coffee, which, again with the honesty, isn't really coffee. They had iced tea. And in a final statement of transparency, I know the drink band makes it look as through Cookie is giving Milo a drink, but, after watching the movie, I discovered that Cookie was actually handing Milo a big container of bacon grease. Hey, the kids didn't notice, so I would say that it was a success!

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[seasonality]

We had so much fun at this Disney Night! Was the best so far! I made a backdrop for the photo booth out of a blue sheet. I made a template for the clouds from Andy's room and then spray painted white clouds on the sheet. Adorable pics of the kids in front of it!