Inspiring Family Nights
Having a family night together has always been a top priority to me. I think my husband and I actually look forward to it more than the children. In the winter, our family night consists of a pizza and a family-oriented movie. In the summers our family nights are focused more on things we can do outside and together- going to a park for an evening meal, picnicking in the backyard on a blanket, sipping milkshakes and slushies or having frozen banana pops while running through sprinklers, popping popcorn and eating it outside by our little fire pit (this one is done after Emily is safe in bed). Can you tell I am longing for some warmer weather?
I find reading and learning about other families and how they spend a night together can be fascinating and inspirational. Although some ideas are still too advanced for my family (my children's ages are 2 & 5), there are many other ideas that we could do that could bring some pizazz to our family night.
Here are some ideas that I have run across more recently:
Frugal Dad has a list of great ideas for a fun and frugal family night. Of his list, my favorite had to be his, "Powers Out" theme where they literally have a night without the lights on and play games by candlelight. I have some ideas for making this more fun with a few games with flashlights and making shadow puppets for my children. I think with these additions, this would make a really fun and entertaining night together.
Over at the Loria Family Dialogues they had a fun evening planned for their family for this Valentine's Day. They did a fondue night with the children and Emily has provided her recipe for some really yummy cheesy fondue. This would be such a fun night to do and now I am on the lookout for some vintage fondue pots from our thrift stores now.
The Homespun Heart has an entire category of family night ideas for creating a fun night together. Monica is so great with themes and you can tell that she really loves to make everything really special for her children. I have gotten lots of great ideas from these entries.
Family Fun Magazine has included an entire list of ideas for things you can do to make family nights special. I love the ideas that they have, in particular, this idea for creating a beach party in the winter. That sounds like it would be right up this Midwestern family's alley.
Like Merchant Ships has moved their family night to Mondays so that they can take advantage of the free movie codes offered by Redbox on Monday. You can get them sent to you via text message or you can visit our site on Monday to get the codes.
Sound Off: Do you do a special "family night" together? What are some fun ideas for things you have done to make your family night special?
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5 Responses to “Inspiring Family Nights”
February 19th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Every Tuesday night is our family night, this is actually something that my family did growing up. We haven’t gotten as creative with themes for our nights together since my kids are 7-5-3. What we do is plan a special dinner, sometimes when i plan ahead I let them pick out a favorite meal or a favorite dessert and then we let each of the girls pick out a game to play. We try not to do a movie time on our family night because our goal for the night is to be communicating and having fun together, although we do love times when we are able to all sit down and watch a movie together. We usually try and do a family devotion that night, whether we do that together before bed or during dinner. Our girls really look forward to family night and so do we!
February 19th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I love this collection – I can’t wait to read the ideas & the comments!
February 20th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Amy – Thanks for the link. I’ve been itching to get back into planning Family Nights lately. Once we get a bit more settled in with Samuel I hope to pick this back up! I loved your thoughts on the Power’s Out night idea – we’ll add this one to our list!
February 20th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Our family night is on Friday. We have a “camp-out” in our living room. We get all the sleeping bags and pads out and camp out on them right on the living room floor. We usually pop popcorn and read a book together. Or sometimes we listen to an audio tape by Vision Forum or watch a movie. Since I have to be very comfortable while camping out, my sons (ages 12 and 10) bring in the top mattress from my bed. My dh and I get to sleep on that. But it’s lots of fun and the children really look forward to this every week!!!And so do I!!!
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:34 pm
We have family night on Thursday. Sometimes it gets rescheduled to another night but we are pretty faithful to have it every week. In the winter we often play games. We try to have one that everyone can play and then later my husband and I might play one by ourselves. We also will do things like play hide and go seek. The kids love playing this with Mom and Dad. Simon Says is another one that they enjoy. In the summer we usually do outside activities like Bike riding (we have a trailer for the littlest ones.), catch, dodgeball, etc. In our busy world I think a family night is a wonderful thing.
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