photo by Scypax Pictures
While the kids may not stay up late enough to watch the entire Academy Awards show on Sunday night (seriously, we barely make it to the bitter end these days), that doesn’t mean they can’t help celebrate Hollywood’s biggest event of the year.
Here are some great ideas for planning your own awards bash.
• Make you own invitations with an “admit one” motif or send out an awards-themed one from evite.com to friends, asking them to come red-carpet ready—even if that just means sporting sunglasses or some fancy, faux jewellery. Have a selection of dress-up clothes or old Halloween costumes on hand for those kids who want to look the part.
• Plan the music for your party by downloading a selection of tunes that have won Best Original Song. Some past winners that kids might recognize include: Fame from Fame, What a Feeling from Flashdance, Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, A Whole New World from Aladdin, Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King and Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire.
• Buy a piece of long red material from a fabric store to make your own red carpet. Be ready to snap shots of your guests as they wave to their throngs of fans. You can send the photos to them later.
• Tweak a couple of basic party games to the theme such as Pin-the-Oscar-on-the-Celeb. Print out or buy a poster of a fave movie star and print and cut out an image of the Academy Award. Blindfold players and spin them around. Whoever gets their Oscar closest to the celeb’s hand, wins.
• Make a selection of easy to eat snacks. Kids will love these recipes for mini party foods. And don’t forget to pop loads of popcorn for munching— reusable popcorn containers from the dollar store adds an authentic movie theatre touch.
• Have an Academy Award ballot (download here) on hand for adults and make one for the kids with the nominees for Best Animated Feature Film—Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells and Up so they can play along.
• If the kids aren’t too interested in the preshow, have a past Oscar-winning animated film such as WALL-E or, Finding Nemo or The Incredibles playing in another room.
• Finally, give guests their own coveted bag o’ swag. It can include movie snacks, dollar store finds such as feather boas or a DVD (most large retailers have great 2 for $10 buys).
So which film does your family think will win Best Picture? Tell us at win@canadianfamily.ca before 9 p.m. on March 7 and you could win a prize basket worth $75 from Newman’s Own including a selection of Newman’s Own dressings, popcorn bowl, candy bowl and two of Paul Newman’s Oscar-nominated films—The Road to Perdition and The Color of Money.
