The Little Mermaid Movie Night Party
One of my favorite childhood films of all time is The Little Mermaid. I was the perfect impressionable age for it. I had the bedsheets, the stuffed animals, and the clothes. To this day my family still tells me when it was time to watch a movie, I would pull out my VHS tape for a Little Mermaid Movie Night. (I even geeked out a little at Disney World when I got to meet her in person! Eek!)
I couldn’t think of a better movie to start our movie night journey together with than The Little Mermaid. Let’s let the movie night magic begin!
Want to hear more about how my blog got started? Read How My Movie Nights Started
My inspiration for this Little Mermaid Movie Night dinner came from under the sea. I’ve made up a menu below. Check it out!
For our Little Mermaid Movie Night, we had Mac and Cheese Shells, Octopus Hot dogs, Seaweed Salad, Goldfish Popcorn, and ‘Under the Sea’ Water.
Little Mermaid Movie Night Menu
What I make largely comes down to what my kids will eat and also some things I want to challenge my kids to eat. This time was definitely a kid-friendly menu.
Mac and Cheese Shells
You can absolutely make this easier and go grab a box of mac and cheese shells and call it a day.
But I love to make things homemade so I’ve included my recipe at the bottom of the page for my mac and cheese shells.
Mac and cheese with seashell pasta seemed like a no brainer for an under the sea themed movie night.
I used the medium-sized shells as I like my mac and cheese a little heartier. And I prefer the cheese mixture of sharp white cheddar and gouda. The flavor profile is amazing!
Octopus Hot Dogs
On the other side of that, I made octopus hot dogs. I’m sure you’ve seen these before and they are SUPER easy to make.
Grill up some hot dogs. (Or boil or microwave, however you make them is fine!) I like to grill mine in a pan with a little butter. In my opinion, it gives them more flavor.
And take a sharp knife (butter knives don’t create as clean of a cut,) and about halfway up the hot dog, slice the hot dog in half.
Then rotate the hot dog and slice it in half again, making 4 “legs” now.
Take each 4 of those legs and slice each in half, giving you your 8 legs. Add some eyes and a smile with some ketchup, mustard, or whatever condiment you eat with it. And your octopus hot dogs are ready to go!
Seaweed Salad
Personally, I just like salad. I’m actually one of those people who buy a bag of spring mix and I actually eat it. I added this because honestly, as an adult I needed something more than just mac and cheese and hot dogs.
Create your own salad mix you will eat but all I did for this was toss some spring mix with my favorite toppings and called it a day. Change the name to seaweed salad and you are DONE.
This is a perfect example of how you can take something boring and turn it into something “themed” for your movie. You don’t always have to get fancy with every single part of your meal.
Little Mermaid Movie Night Dessert
Desert I wanted to be a popcorn mix that is Mermaid themed. I knew I wanted to use the Goldfish Grahams. So I created a mix with pretzel sticks, purple Sixlets (I found these in the cake/candy making aisle at Walmart,) and I picked up a small bag of the turquoise candy melts to give it a little more color.
I started with a bag of popcorn. Non-buttered popcorn works best but if buttered is all you have, it will be fine. I popped the bag in the microwave and poured it into a big bowl. Then I added about a cup of these vanilla cupcake goldfish crackers.
I also added in a cup of pretzels and these purple and teal candies I picked up in the cake decorating aisle.
Then I took a cup of these teal melting wafers to give it some fun mermaid color and melted it in my microwave for 1 minute. I took them out to stir and put them back in for another 15 seconds. I stirred one more time and it was melted plenty at this point.
Then I poured the chocolate on top of the popcorn mixture and stirred.
I let the popcorn mixture sit for about 30 minutes to harden before putting them in our popcorn bowls. (I had picked these up at the Dollar Tree a while back) You can eat right away but it will be a little messy, I recommend letting it sit while you watch the movie and bring it out for a mid-movie snack.
Little Mermaid Movie Night Drink
One of my favorite movie night themes to make is the drinks. I found this drink recipe originally on another blog that I adapted for our movie night here.
If you want the original recipe, you can check it out here on Mandy’s Recipe Box.
It was delicious and the PERFECT shade for our Little Mermaid Movie Night. So we renamed it “Under the Sea” Water.
I like to make my drinks individually so I don’t make too much.
I just eyeballed it and poured it into a glass:
- 1/3 Blue Hawaiian Punch
- 1/3 Sprite or other lemon-lime pop
- 2 Tablespoons of a Frozen Lemonade Mix.
My family really enjoyed this twist on a beverage!
If you want to make your beverage adult-friendly add some vodka or better yet, lemonade vodka to your drink and there you go!
Crafts
First off, don’t forget to sign up for my emails on the right-hand side of my homepage to get your own printable movie tickets for movie night!
My kids enjoy doing crafts but I am terrible at actually doing them. Honestly, they are much better at crafting than I am.
So to spare you all from looking at my terrible crafting skills, I will include a few crafts that other people created, that are fun and easy for you to go along with your Little Mermaid Movie Night!
Let me know in the comments below which one you tried and how they turned out!
Mermaid Toilet Paper Craft
First, is this cute Toilet Paper Mermaid from Conservamom.
She has a printable that is super easy for your kids to color to match your movie night!
I love things that are super simple and I don’t have to go to the store to buy all these extra crafting supplies to make it.
Mermaid Slime
Are you a slime making family? This super pretty slime recipe is so easy to make with stuff you have around the house.
For the recipe to keep your family entertained while you make dinner, check out the recipe here at The Best Ideas for Kids Blog
Mermaid Spoon Dolls
And the third idea I found that was really cute was to make spoon “dolls.”
If you don’t have yarn to wrap around the dolls, we made ours out of pipe cleaners. It made wrapping the spoons super easy!
You can find the step by step instructions for those here at I Heart Crafty Things
Are you ready to make your own Little Mermaid Movie Night?
I think you’re ready! Now go create that movie magic with your family.
Did you change something and make it your own? Or did you use my recipe suggestions?
Let me know in the comments below what you did, or reach out directly through Instagram and let me know how it went!
Don’t forget to save my recipes on Pinterest so you don’t forget where to find this page again!
I can’t wait to hear how you made your movie night magical and fun for your loved ones!
Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
The Pasta
- 2 cups shells pasta any size
- 1/2 tsp salt
The Sauce
- 2 1/4 cups warm milk (place in microwave for about 1 and a half minutes to warm)
- 2 1/2 tbsp buttter
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1/2 tsp ground dry mustard
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 8 oz shredded cheese (shred yourself for better results) (any kind, but i prefer a sharp white cheddar and gouda mixture)
Optional: The Topping
- 1/2 cup Panko
- 3 tbsp melted butter
- 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
The Pasta
- Fill a pot up with water and add the salt to it.
- Wait until the water boils, then add the shells to the boiling water.
- Cook for specified time listed on the box.
- Drain pasta when cooking time is finishe.
The Sauce
- Place the same pan you used to cook your pasta back on the stove. Turn it on medium heat.
- Place the butter in the pan and wait for it to melt.
- Once, butter is melted, add the 2 tbsp of flour and 1/2 tsp ground mustard to the pot.
- Whisk for 1-2 minutes until a paste forms.
- Slowly pour in the warm milk while whisking constantly.
- Keep whisking until milk starts to boil and thicken to a heavy cream consistency.
- Once the milk mixture is thickened, turn off the heat.
- When the mixture stops boiling, add in your 8oz of shredded cheese, salt, sugar, and pepper.
- Stir until cheese is melted.
- Add back in your pasta and mix into the cheese sauce.
- Pour your pasta into a baking dish and set aside.
The Topping
- Mix the panko, parmesan cheese, and melted butter in a small bowl.
- Spread this evenly over the pasta.
- Bake a 375 for 10-20 minutes, until golden brown on top.
Notes
"Under the Sea Blue Drink
Ingredients
- Blue Hawaiian Punch
- Sprite or anything similar
- Frozen Lemonade Mixture
Instructions
- Fill your glass up 1/3 full of Blue Hawaiian Punch
- Fill up the next 1/3 of your glass full of Sprite.
- Add 2 spoonfulls of the frozen lemonade mixture to your drink and give it a stir.
Mermaid Popcorn
Ingredients
- 1 bag non-buttered popcorn (buttered will work too)
- 1 cup vanilla cupcake Goldfish Grahams
- 1 cup pretzels (I used sticks)
- 1/2 cup purple sixlets
- 1 small package teal melting candy wafers
Instructions
- Prepare your popcorn according to package instructions.
- Add popcorn, goldfish, pretzels, and sixlets to a large bowl. Stir to mix ingredients.
- Pour your melting wafers into a microwave safe bowl and heat in the microwave for 1 minute.
- Take out the melting wafers and stir.
- Place melting wafers back in the microwave again for 15 seconds.
- Take out and stir again.
- If wafers are not fully melted, you may place the chocolate back in microwave for 15 seconds at a time, taking them out and sirring before placing back in the microwave again.
- Once choclate is melted, pour ontop of popcorn mixture and stir until all the mixture is convered.
- To make less messy, spread popcorn out on a sheet or wax paper for harden for 10-30 minutes before eating.
