Our most recent trip to Walt Disney World was a complete surprise for our kids. If your little ones are anything like ours, they have the tendency to get super excited for things... and then proceed to ask a bajillion questions up until the moment it happens.
Because we booked this particular trip 18 months out, we chose not to tell them until we arrived at the airport. (Which turned out to be the BEST surprise reveal we've ever pulled off!) But with this secret, we wanted to find a way to stay excited ourselves. So, we came up with the "movie bowl".
On little slips of paper, I wrote down the titles to 50 movies. Then we presented the idea to the kids - a new tradition of a family movie night! Once a week, or as often as we could, we would take turns drawing movies from the bowl. Our youngest got to go first, and then we proceeded by age until Dad drew his and we'd start all over again.
We did not tell them the bowl was full of only Disney movies. This was a little Easter egg that they eventually caught on to. But it honestly took them longer than I expected!
I chose not to add sequels to the bowl, because 50 seemed like a big enough goal. But we did end up watching a few of them anyway. And we very specifically only watched the OG versions of these - there are options for remakes and live action, but we stuck with the classics.
As parents, we got to relive some of our favorite movies from childhood, which was super fun. But the unexpected gem was watching our little girls discover the same magical stories. The conversations we had (and continue to have!) about these films were entertaining and irreplaceable.
Learning their favorite parts of the movies we grew up with was comical, and ended up absolutely fitting into their personalities. Our oldest loved all of the animals and heart-tugging characters like Dug, Tiana, and Belle. Our youngest gravitated towards the silly picking favorites like Kevin, Dopey, and Piglet.
I truly believe that these simple family movie nights made our trip so much more magical. Our kids were able to develop their own favorite characters, and then give them a big hug! Instead of being shy and a little star-struck, they were able to engage in all kinds of random and hilarious conversations with the cast members.
So if you're thinking about heading to the parks in the near, or even not-so-near future... I would challenge you to have some family movie nights of your own.
Get our FREE list of 50 Disney movies to watch before heading to the parks here:
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