How to Plan an Outdoor Family Movie Night

Outdoor movie nights are the best!

I love them especially when Fall is right around the corner, when the weather is perfectly cool. Fall is my favorite season, but in the recent years I have been loving late Spring and early Summer because of the perfect weather. Now that we have kids, I just hope everyday has good weather so that we can take the kids out and play. Outdoor movie nights are the perfect activity to keep your kids busy and entertained! I am the #1 fan of easy set up activities is one of them. Bonus: you don’t even have to leave your house (well, sorta.. just into your yard. 🙂 )

The weather is finally starting to warm up and I look forward to outdoor movie nights every year. This is a great social distancing activity if you want to have some friends over too. I hope that this year we can begin to see more of our family and friends! This post is going to cover how to set up an an easy outdoor movie night with some food and snack ideas for everyone to enjoy.

What you’ll need:

A projector

I love this projector from Anker because it is a speaker, projector, and a player all in one. It connects to steaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Video, Youtube, Hulu, or Disney+ via wifi. You can easily project it onto any screen, solid white sheet, or white wall. We love using this indoors too! I love that it works while charging so you can just have it plugged in if you need to (like me because I always forget to to charge it beforehand!)

A projector screen (like this) or a solid white sheet.

I love the one we have (pictured and linked above) because it rolls up and down and it’s easily set up. We have it mounted to the top of our deck so that it’s ready and there for us when we need it. This projector screen is thick and opaque, so there’s no bleeding through.

A family favorite movie

Right now, my daughter is all about Trolls and Coco (like any other kid, amiright? haha) Some of our other favorite family movies are: Hocus Pocus, Finding Nemo, Coraline, Ratatouille, Spider Man, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Monsters Inc, My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo.

Comfortable Seating

We just use our patio furniture when we have our movie nights. But make sure to grab your extra blankets and pillows that you have inside for the cooler cozier nights. Lawn chairs or fold out chairs are perfect for outdoor movie nights too.

Drinks and Snacks!

Movie theatre teamed snacks such as buttered popcorn, boxed candy and sodas are always good choices. Some easy food ideas can be pizza or anything you can throw on the grill outside. If you’re looking for healthier alternatives, make a platter with cut up fruits (like strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, etc), fruit pouches (for the little ones), popcorn, popsicles, veggies and dip, chips with guac, and cheese sticks. Yum!

How cute are these snack tray boxes?! Linked here.

And of course, wine & beer for the adults.

Feeling Extra?

A little firepit is perfect for the chillier nights and you can even make smores!

Outdoor movie nights are the best!