Elf Holiday Movie Viewing Party

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Christmas traditions and planned activities with the kids can be fun and add to the holiday amusement but tossing in an impromptu surprise can be exciting too. Watching the Elf movie is one of those traditions we love but for a little added fun and with the help of the Command Party Products – now available in Canada on Amazon.ca, I put together a little holiday viewing party.

I’m not a party planner and I don’t profess to be a crafty person but I didn’t want that to stop me from having some fun with the kids. Pinterest can be a great source of inspiration if you don’t let it intimidate you. The new Command Party products makes decorating a snap. The products are simple to apply and easy to remove, keeping my walls damage-free. The nice thing about planning a party around Elf is that the character is very childlike and cartoonish. In my mind that meant not worrying about rough lines and slightly imperfect prompts.

The first thing that came to my mind when thinking of Elf is his story, trekking from the North Pole to New York City.

“I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel.”

I wanted to add a little of this fun world into our party so I made my own Candy Cane Forest. It was actually pretty simple. Using standard 8.5 by 11 printer paper I taped the sheets together to form the candy cane sticks. The number of pages determined the different heights of the candy canes. Then I attached one sheet of paper to the left or the right of the top sheet, depending on which way I wanted the candy cane to face, and drew the arch for the hook. Now some more precise people might use a compass drawing tool to get the arch but I did mine freehand. Remember my comment above about childlike and cartoonish?

With the candy canes cut out I used some red and green poster paint to add lines to each, varying the thickness like on real candy canes and my forest was ready to plant.

I had one wall in our family room in mind for the Candy Cane forest. Once I figured out the placement and the angles of each candy cane I attached the Command Party Clear Mounting Strips to the back of each (three on the arch and two staggered on the stick). These enabled me to hang my Candy Cane Forest flat on my wall.

I stumbled upon some glowing balloons that I could hang from the ceiling using the Command Party Balloon Bunches. Each plastic clip held up to three inflatable balloons (though for one clip I used two and it worked just as well). The balloons represented the Swirly Twirly Gum Drops with their colours and bunched with a glowing balloon they offered a little subtle lighting, perfect for lights out movie viewing. I really loved the clustered balloon look too, making them perfect for the low ceiling in our family room (no one hit their head on them like hanging balloons). The Command Party Balloon Bunches were super easy to use, just sliding the tied balloon into the plastic clip, and they gave the look of floating helium balloons without the cost.

Besides Elf’s story of traveling to New York City, the next big scene that comes to my mind from the movie has to be the converted toy section at Gimbles in preparation for Santa’s arrival. I really loved the Welcome Santa banner done with the Lite-Brite machines but I don’t even know if you can buy those anymore. In all honesty, what would I do with these after the party even if I could buy them? Instead I wanted to create a similar banner but in paper form.

I found one font that wasn’t bad but I settled on the free Square Peg Font for the banner. As the Lite-Brite banner used individual machines for each letter, I printed off one letter per page, going vertically versus horizontally. Using a hole punch I put two holes in each page and then weaved a piece of twine through (something I already had on hand).

Using the Command Party Banner Anchors I wrapped the twine around the anchor knob and it stayed secure without any tying. I used four anchors for my banner because the length and I didn’t want it to sag too much in the middle. Being able to just wrap the twine made things much easier than tying, as I had to adjust the start point and hanging points. The clear colour had the anchors blending right into the wood I attached them to and their easy removal meant I didn’t have to worry about the wood when I took them down.

I also used the Command Party Ceiling Hooks to hang the sparkly tinsel and paper chains in the room (Elf’s decoration of choice). Paper chains are the best since they just use strips of paper, easy enough for anyone to put together. The Command Party Ceiling Hooks had a swivel head so I could turn them in any direction I needed to hang items from the ceiling. I used a hole punch again to put a hole in one of the paper chains and hung that on the hook.

The main element of our Elf Holiday Viewing Party was of course the movie but I wanted to add a little more fun. As luck would have it my youngest daughter owns a raccoon stuffed animal, perfect for a little Raccoon Hug Toss.

Okay, it’s hard to pick just one favourite scene in this movie but this had to be near the top of the list. Similar to hot potato the kids passed the raccoon to one another until they heard the phrase “Does someone need a hug?” At that moment the person with the raccoon was “attacked” by the raccoon and out of the game. He waited in our Candy Cane Forest between games. It’s amazing how something so simple could be so much fun for the kids.

I also shared some Elf Movie trivia courtesy of Mental Floss 21 Things You Might Not Know About Elf. I picked about six trivia points that I thought the kids would find interesting. Using 3M Double Sided tape I stuck each of the trivia questions on the back individual stock image cartoon mittens I printed out. I stuck these Elf Trivia mittens on various walls in our family room using the Command Party Mini Spring Clips. These were perfect, letting people grab a mitten to read the trivia point and clip them back up for the next person. Having them in various places around the room also avoided everyone gathering in one spot in our small space. I was pretty impressed with how well the clips stuck to the wall as the mittens were clipped and unclipped many times throughout the night.

No Elf Holiday Movie Viewing Party would be complete without some of the basic Elf food groups, specifically candy and candy canes. Everyone knows how tasty free candy can be even if you don’t find it on the street or stuck to stairwells.  We even made Rice Krispies Snow Balls (pure white ones from the North Pole and not so pure ones from New York City).

I must admit I had fun putting the party together but the best part was the reaction from the kids when they stumbled upon it after school. They picked up on all the elements like the Candy Cane Forest and Free Candy references. The whole impromptu surprise was created in an afternoon and the Command Party Products made it so easy to put together, even for someone like me who is not that crafty or creative. Having a little holiday fun shouldn’t be stressful or require an art degree. My kids loved our Elf Holiday Movie Screening Party and have asked that the decorations stay up until Santa’s arrival in a few weeks. Plus the easy removal design of the Command Party Products mean I don’t need to worry about damage on my walls and ceiling when it comes time to take the decorations down.

Why not surprise your friends and family with a little impromptu holiday fun? Whether it’s a holiday party or birthday party, the Command Party Products make it easy to get creative without too much time, skill or cost and worry-free clean-up in the end.

This post was sponsored by Command Brands but the ideas and experience expressed in this post are completely my own.

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