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What Flicks Can Inspire Your Holidays?

Who doesn’t love a great holiday movie, right? It’s the perfect time of the year to sit down and relax with a huge bowl of popcorn. In addition to entertaining us, they can also provide inspiring Christmas party ideas. Don’t you LOVE this concept?

In a little “throwback Tuesday/Thursday something post”, I figured I’d share some of my favorite holiday movie themes to make your Christmas party pop in a segment clip I did for The Better Show. Happy Holidays!

3 Key Takeaways Featuring Christmas Party Ideas From The Movies:

Non-traditional is okay.
Be creative.
Make it fun!

Christmas breakfast! Are you kidding…we ALWAYS have Christmas dinner! If you are planning your Christmas celebration, don’t be afraid to make it your own. If you want to serve pancakes, waffles and syrup, then do it. Grandma won’t keel over if you break a family tradition. The holidays are about celebrating with family and friends. Be creative and make it fun with a hot chocolate bar or a fun activity like a gift exchange.

Related: Christmas Morning Delight!

Here’s a summary of the tips from the clip. Take them and make them your own.

5 Christmas Movie Scenes To Inspire Your Holiday Party:

1. Elf

What could be better than spaghetti and maple syrup? According to Elf, the 4 food groups include 1) sugar, 2) sugar, 3) sugar, and lastly 4) more sugar! Plan a party around an alternative food category. If you don’t want to have the traditional turkey, elf says it’s ok!

2. A Christmas Story

The Peking duck Chinese restaurant scene is classic in A Christmas Story. Who says that your party has to be traditional? If you want to go full Chinese, then knock yourself out!

3. Home Alone

Kevin is king of the hill. With no one home to tell him otherwise, it is a free-for-all. Pizza…why not? Knock yourself out! Kids would LOVE to have a bar bell at the kid’s table to get some service. “Bing…I need another sundae!”

Related: Holiday Fun For The Kids!

4. Little Women

The whole idea here is alternative times which is inspired by the gift exchange scene. They had a Christmas brunch. Don’t be afraid to change it up. Plan your party on Christmas Eve or have a Christmas breakfast with pancakes, waffles and syrup.

5. Polar Express

Hot chocolate was a big part of the Polar Express with candy canes, big marshmallows and stir sticks. Super traditional!

3 Christmas Party Themes:

1. Breakfast

Have Christmas breakfast with pancakes, waffles and syrup, rather than Christmas dinner. It’s okay to plan your event at an alternative time. It might even work out better for your guests!

2. Beverages

Serve different drinks in different glasses. Give the kids plastic champagne flutes inspired by Home Alone. In National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, they served eggnog in moose glasses.

3. Exercise/Activity

Start your party off with a gratitude exercise as seen in It’s A Wonderful Life. Guests can write something down that they are grateful for. It can set the tone for your event if you start with this activity.
Plan a gift exchange inspired by Little Women. Each child can bring a book to exchange with another child. Or have a food-themed event to exchange breakfast or cookies.
Build a snowman which could serve double duty as an activity and entertainment.
Get in the Christmas spirit! Sing Christmas carols inspired by Love Actually.
Go ice skating like in the movie Serendipity.

Big Take Away – Think Outside The Box

When you think of the holidays, do you think of tradition – the same thing year after year? Tradition is great and all, but sometimes we need to mix it up a bit. Get out of your comfort zone and plan your Christmas party a little bit differently this year. Change is sometimes good and maybe your change will become a tradition!

Tell Us Your Favorite Tip:

Let us all learn from each other. Give us your tips, tricks, feedback and resources in the comments below. And if you like it, please be a sweetheart and share this post?

Looking for more tips to get that holiday party started? We’ve got 65 of them in our Super Secret Party Tips guide and the best part is it’s FREE!