It's A Mom's World: Our Buddy the Elf Themed Dinner

Every year I always try and make some type of Christmas themed dinner. Last year, we had a snowman dinner and the year before that, we had a Grinch dinner.

This year, we went with a dinner based around the movie Elf. It's one of my favorite Christmas movies of all time!

I wanted to keep everything very simple because over the years of hosting parties and holidays, I've learned that keeping clean up to a minimal is extremely important. I want to enjoy making memories with my family, rather than spend my time washing dishes at the sink.

So first things first....

The Decorations:

I spent two days cutting strips of paper, making snowflakes, and making paper chains.

My kids helped make the snowflakes, which was such a nice time. Listening to Christmas music and spending time on the floor cutting out all different snowflakes was a memory in itself.

Promising they can stay up late to help me was more of a reward for me rather then for them. It was less snowflakes I had to make!!

"SANTA!! I know him!"

*I'll link up my printable for The Code of Elves at the end of this post*

The Food:

"Son of a nutcracker!"

Just a simple bowl of cashews. Can't go wrong.

"You smell like beef and cheese"

I made some homemade cheeseburger sliders. Always a hit with any kid! (and adults!)

"Smiling's my favorite!"

Mashed potato smiles were the perfect addition to the menu!

Dessert:

For dessert we had spaghetti cupcakes. I saw the idea on Pinterest and absolutely LOVED it.

It's just cupcakes layered into the bowl. I mixed white frosting with a little yellow and brown food coloring paste to make a "pasta colored" icing.

I covered the cupcakes in a light layer and then piped on the spaghetti using a #20 icing tip and pastry bag.

I topped the "spaghetti" with melted chocolate frosting, mini marshmallows, M&M's, and pieces of chocolate fudge poptarts. Is the healthiest dessert? I'm gonna say no. But Buddy the elf doesn't do healthy. After all, the four main food groups for elves are candy, candy corns, candy canes, and syrup!

"Congratulations! World's best cup of coffee!"

I know I posted this picture above, but I didn't take a single picture of the world's best cup of coffee! Which in actuality, was cups of hot chocolate. I didn't think giving kids cups of coffee with their bowl of sugar spaghetti would have been a smart move. ;)

If you remember, Buddy drinks the whole bottle of coke. We did too. But they were MUCH smaller. :)

While we ate, I played a playlist of music I had created that had the soundtrack to the movie. The dinner was a huge hit! It was simple to make, easy preparations, and super easy clean up.

We also had to dress the part. Everyone got their own elf hat to wear, all the way from the North Pole. Which in "Mom Land" is the dollar store!

{ They're all ready to eat! And of course, no picture (in this family at least) would be complete without one of my kids having their eyes closed. }

We finished off the night sitting by the fire and watching the movie Elf together. It was a special night full of laughter, fun, and memories we'll all remember. And that's what Christmas is about to me.

I love to create simple nights like these that we can look back on and remember in Christmas pasts that we spent this time together. We laughed around good food. We talked. We loved.

I hope I gave someone some inspiration to create their own themed dinner and try this out for their family! You really should. Come on! Don't be a cotton headed ninny muggins.

Wishing you all a season full of love and memories of your own!

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Grab your FREE printables below:

You can download my free Elf food labels HERE