Don’t be jealous of this crayon masterpiece I put together last year.
Nearly every weekend, we all pile onto the couch as a family and watch a movie together. We started doing this about 2 years ago, and it dawned on me a couple of weeks ago that this simple, ordinary thing might end up being one of the boys best memories as they grow up. Not because it is earth-shattering or that no one else is doing it, but because we are all together and we do it on such a regular basis.
One of the things that I think we all love about family movie night is that we try to watch movies that we will all enjoy; not just the kids. We really try to watch family movies, or classics that we watched as kids, or always wanted to. As a result of this tradition, we have watched a lot of movies together in the past couple of years.
I’ve compiled our ten of our favorites. Depending on the day, these might change, because really there are so many great ones.
1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – We really enjoyed the Johnny Depp version of the movie. The visuals were incredible, and we loved talking about the not so well-behaved children that went on the tour with Charlie.
2. Night at the Museum – This is probably the all-time favorite and the movie that started it all for our family movie nights. Plus, I give extra triple points to any movie that is set in New York City. Watching this movie really made the boys’ visit to the Museum of Natural History in NYC extra special.
3. Matilda – We just watched this one last weekend, and we are STILL talking about it. Such a special little story, and the characters are just so memorable. I think watching this made the boys appreciate how nice their parents and teachers are in comparison to the ones in this movie. Score 🙂
4. Parent Trap (BOTH) – The 60’s version and the 90’s version are so much fun. The boys love the idea of the kids tricking the adults.
5. Mr Popper’s Penguins – Another great family movie set in New York City. We probably watched this 2 years ago and the kids still remember how the penguins slid down the corkscrew walkways of the Guggenheim Museum.
6. The Sound of Music -This one was long…nearly 3 hours, but they really liked it. Especially the music. We kept singing songs from the movie all week long after watching it together.
7. Nanny McPhee – Such a wonderful, magical story. For some reason, the boys really enjoy seeing “naughty” kids in movies, and Brian and I especially love it when those same kids change for the good.
8. The Muppets – We all love this movie. We actually own it, and put it on for the kids on long trips fairly regularly. The music is awesome.The humor is spot on. The visuals are lively and crisp. Just can’t say enough good things about this movie.
9. ET – Another classic from our youth that we could not wait to watch with them. I remember watching this in the movie theater when it first came out a mere 32 years ago (yikes). I thought they might be scared, and they did get a little jittery with the suspenseful parts, but they quickly got over it when they got to know little ET.
10. Elf – Hilarious. Purely hilarious. I don’t know what Brian and I enjoyed more, the movie, or watching the boys crack up at the movie.
And there are still so many left to see as they grow up: Goonies, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, the list goes on and on!
I look forward to many more cozy Family Movie Nights with my favorite people and know that this is something that the kids will look back on and remember fondly.
