My daughter just turned 11 and it was a friend birthday party year. We don’t do big birthday parties for every birthday because, well, can you imagine throwing seven big birthday parties a each year?! Anyway, when we do host a friend birthday, it’s a lot of fun and this year was no exception. She’s had some really fun birthday parties in the past. Plus, having a winter birthday can be tricky weather-wise so you can’t rely on being outdoors. Needless, to say the pressure was on. Thankfully, I think the movie night birthday party theme she picked was really fun. Plus, it worked out perfectly when–in fact–the weather took a turn for the worse and we had to move her outdoor party indoors. Some links contain affiliates, all opinions are my own.

steps for hosting a movie night birthday party

I think as kids get older it gets trickier planning a party. You have to think of what the birthday kid and guests will like and won’t be too “lame.” Actually, I don’t think kids say lame anymore. I should say, you have to think of what will be sigma. Plus, what types of party favors are budget-friendly and appropriate for older kids? How much food should you have because, gosh, some preteens and teenagers can eat a lot. That’s why I think this movie night birthday party is a great idea!

watching a movie and other activities

Once our theme was picked the hardest decision was which movie to watch. Luckily for us right before we sent out Evites we realized that we had the perfect movie available to stream! We had bought Wicked when it was released to Amazon Prime to watch as a family and all my kids love it. My daughter assured me that her friends all loved it too so it was the perfect movie for a group of preteen girls to watch at a birthday party. And to sing aloud to. Dang, those girls got loud.

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We kept the activities simple with cupcakes and watching a movie. However, there are so many fun activities you could during a movie night birthday party! One idea is to play a movie Bingo game, like these Rom-Com Bingo boards I made in this blog post. You could also play a game like Scene It?, or simply have guests guess famous movie lines or play charades. Another idea is to pick a craft that has to do with the movie you are watching.

food for a movie night birthday party

Since originally we had planned to have the party outdoors, we had to start the party later in the day. Since our start time was 6:30 we avoided feeding everyone dinner and focused on movie theater snacks. For savory options we popped fresh popcorn in our new popcorn maker (it is so cute and fun to use!) and had soft pretzels. For sweet treats we had some classic movie candy–licorice, M&Ms, and Skittles.

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For the birthday girl’s cake I made some cupcakes that looked like little containers of popcorn. They were actually really easy to make and the girls all loved them! If you can frost a simple cupcake, you can easily make these popcorn cupcakes by using mini marshmallows. I shared the full tutorial last week on the blog.

a movie theater party set up

I love having outdoor parties because I feel like you can keep the decor to a minimum. So when I realized the rain was going to change our plans, I had to pivot slightly. I still didn’t go too crazy, mainly focusing on the concession stand for the movie theater inspiration. I used a light sign that I had to write “NOW SHOWING WICKED” and had it displayed with the food. Another movie theater touch I put out were a couple of classic red and white striped popcorn buckets with white baby’s breath in it.

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Other than that, I added to the movie theater vibe by setting up some blue velvet curtains. I had wanted to buy new curtains for our family room anyway and these were on sale for a great deal. We set one up in the walkway into the family room, and also on either side of the concessions table. The only other step in the set-up process was placing the couches in a traditional movie theater arrangement.

movie night birthday party party favors

I’ve mentioned before that I have a love/hate relationship with party favors. I think they’re such a fun touch to a party, but I hate the idea of sending party guests home with cheap junk. From the beginning I thought it would be fun to have personalized popcorn buckets for each girl with some treats in them. However, it was so hard to find what I wanted–or way too expensive! Then, after stumbling across a somewhat similar hack online, I realized I could use 100% acetone nail polish remover to take all the red off of cheap, dollar store popcorn buckets. It wasn’t hard, but it was definitely a somewhat time-consuming labor of love.

Once each popcorn bucket was clean I cut out a personalized design for each girl with my Silhouette Cameo. Inside each popcorn bucket the girls went home we Red Vines, milk chocolate M&Ms, mini Popcornopolis cones, and a handful of Wicked stickers. I was so happy with how these favors turned out and I think the girls really liked them!

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All in all it was a fun night, even if the girls did get a little rowdy during the movie. It also made me extremely glad that our family doesn’t do sleepovers, because I was happy to have a little peace and quiet once all the cute party guests went home.

What movie would your birthday kiddo want to watch at their party?

Find more fun party ideas on my Pinterest boards!