My son who turned 7 loves movies so with the recent purchase of a big screen TV for a newly finished basement, we had the perfect party.
My husband did the invitations on the computer. The invitation read: LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! Join Jordan for a "MOVIE" party to celebrate his 7th birthday. Then, our address was listed and after that -Popcorn and Refreshments will be served! Also, at the bottom of the paper, my husband made a ticket that said, NOW PLAYING Disney's THE WILD-rated G ADMIT ONE and it had the rspv date and phone number. To decorate the house, we put up streamers in red and white and movie streamers from the local party store that had video cameras on it. We hung this around our entranceway along with the streamers to make it look like a theater. I used black plastic table cloths and confetti to decorate the table. At the front door, we made a sign saying STARRING JORDAN and also another sign SNACK BAR for the concession table. As the children arrived, they were given envelopes with their name and play money and an admittance ticket inside. Then I set up a craft table where they made wooden star magnets purchased from a craft store for 25 cents each. First, they put a magnet on the back of the star and painted the star from 6 color choices. This was left to dry until the end of the party. Then I had a smaller wooden cupcake that was glued on the front of the magnet star. This was the craft to take home. Next, the kids went downstairs to the basement where the theater was set up. My son, the birthday boy, collected the tickets and my older daughter ran the snack bar. I bought regular sized candy bars, popcorn in real popcorn bags (party store), hot dogs in the paper holders(party store again), and drinks(juice pouches and small water bottles). I priced them as follows-candy-$1, popcorn-$1, hotdog-$2, and juice/water-$1. The kids used their pay money to buy snacks and then settled down to watch the movie. After the movie, we opened presents and had cupcakes and icecream cups. While waiting for parents to arrive for pick up, we played charades (everyone who plays gets to pick mini candy bars for the favor box)and pass the popcorn (I just put a small amount of popcorn in a plastic bag and tied it to pass around). When the music stops, if the person has the bag of popcorn they get to pick a mini candy bar to put in the favor box too. For favors, I got a bigger sized popcorn box and put mini bags of popcorn in it as well as the mini candy bars won from the games and a rice crispie treat. Everyone had a fantastic time!