Holiday Entertaining Ideas from Your Favorite Movies! Part One

Who doesn’t love a great holiday movie? In addition to entertaining us, they can provide great inspiration for your next holiday party.  Check out some of my favorite holiday movie-inspired party tips.

My Top Holiday Tips and the Movies that Inspired Them:

1. Food – More movies than you can imagine rocked the “alternative” holiday meal in multiple ways: Think the spaghetti in “Elf,” the peking duck in “A Christmas Story” or the old school presentation in “A Christmas Carol.”

• “Elf” – Serve Elf’s favorite, spaghetti with syrup.
• “A Christmas Story” – Try a Chinese buffet with chopsticks, miso soup and wontons. Decorate with Asian holiday ornaments.
• “Home Alone” – The kids will LOVE having pizza and an “all you can eat” sundae bar.
• “Little Women” – Have Christmas breakfast instead of Christmas dinner.
• “A Christmas Carol” – Serve traditional foods served on multi-layered pedestals, like raisin pudding.

2. Beverages – Coca-Cola has gotten a lot of play over the years in some of our favorite films (“Elf” and “Home Alone”) – whether it’s straight out of the bottle or in a champagne flute. Rock your inner carbonation or go old-school beverage with unexpected glasses like in “The Great Gatsby.”

• “Home Alone” – Coke in a champagne flute.
• “Elf” – Coke straight out of the bottle.
• “The Great Gatsby” – Little bottles of champagne.
• “It’s a Wonderful Life” – Traditional glasses with mulled wine, Bailey’s and hot chocolate.
• “Polar Express” – Hot chocolate and marshmallows – go for jumbos, handcrafted or even dyed marshmallows.

3. Activities – Nothing beats the holiday blues like a little exercise. Think ice skating (“Serendipity”), caroling (“Love Actually”) or exchanging food as a meal (“Little Women”).

• “It’s a Wonderful Life” – Show some gratitude and have each guest share something that they are thankful for this holiday season.
• “Serendipity” – Head outside for some good ole’ fashion exercise with a party at the community ice skating rink.
• “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” – Host some “Reindeer Games” (remember adding in the line “like Monopoly” when you sang it as a kid?) with a board game tournament.
• “Little Women” – A new twist on the gift exchange. Incorporate your favorite holiday breakfast pastries and have a “pastry exchange.”
• “Love Actually” – After eating and drinking, take a stroll through the neighborhood with some traditional caroling.

Will your holiday bash be full of maple syrup spaghetti and Chinese food? Tell me in the bomments section below!

P.S. – a lot the goodies here can be picked up at your local World Market!