Brilliant Movie Snack Tray Idea
Get ready to make movie night even easier with cute, fun, and inexpensive movie night snack trays! You’re going to want these individual snack trays for your next movie night!
One of the truly fun things of my parenting career has been creating family movie night traditions. We love having a regular family movie night at home. But living in Arizona, we learn into trips to the movie theater to cool off and love a movie night out too!
We have been doing summer movies for kids for a few years now. It’s such a fun tradition to get to head to the movie theater once a week and catch a family movie on the cheap!
The only downside? Kids are notorious for spilling their popcorn, struggling with a candy holder, and losing water bottles/spilling soda, and other drinks. It can get messy quickly with a sea of kids.
This year, I decided it was time to come up with a better system and create an easy individual movie snack tray caddy for each kid. And let me tell you, I regret not doing this sooner! It’s made movie snacks and movie days so much easier. And dare I add, a lot more fun too!
How to Make Your Own Movie Snack Trays
This is about the easiest tutorial you’re ever going to see! You can do one step: buy it, and be done. But if you want to customize the snack trays or add names, it adds just a few more steps.
Step 1: Buy a Desk Organizer Caddy with 3 compartments.
I searched far and wide for the perfect caddy size. It needed to be a convenient size to carry into the theater. It also needs to be the right size for little hands (and big hands alike) to easily use. And of course, to fit on kid-sized laps without being too big or too small.
Three compartments are ideal. You can easily make a popcorn section, a cup holder, and a spot that can fit candy or other treats. That amount just felt right.
Additionally, don’t we all want easy storage for all the times we’re not using it? Yes, we do!
I know some people buy a super cheap version at dollar stores, but I found a big issues with these. They have ventilated sides with cutouts that don’t keep your concession favorites in their space! The last thing we need is butter oil seasoning all over clothes after the movie. You can buy paper popcorn bags and use small bowls ot help, but I didn’t want to have to buy and transport extra things, so I kept looking.
After a lot of trial and error and testing multiple caddies, I found the perfect one that is a great deal, too!
This cheap but sturdy option from At Home is under $3 and checks every box!
I also love this multi-pack with several colorful container options to let each person feel like they have their own snack tray they can use and identify easily.
These fit a stadium cup, a sippy cup, a mom-sized Stanley cup, or a water bottle of most sizes without being too big or too tight.
They have one big compartment perfect for popcorn. But you could also move the popcorn over and opt for a hot dog, nachos, or pizza if you wanna do dinner and a movie.
The other side is big enough to fit box candy at the movie theater (or bought at Walmart for cheap)! But it’s also small enough if you want to open a bag of candy and use it as a candy cup to hold a few (or lots) of pieces. This creates a kid-friendly compartment where little hands can grab the candy without dropping it.
Step 2: Clean Your Container
I don’t think I need to say more than this. But if you’re going to put edible items in there (which was the whole idea, right?), I’d hand-wash it and dry it before you do anything else.
OPTIONAL Step 3: Personalize It
There’s something so fun about making a movie snack tray personal with a name tag or custom design!
I’m sure you could easily find vinyl stickers or water bottle stickers for this. If you own a cutting machine, a vinyl name plate would be amazing.
I’ve become obsessed with 3D printing this year and wanted to make a nameplate for each of my kids. And of course, I couldn’t stop there, so we ended up making a name plate for all of our friends’ kids, too. It’s been a fun way to tell each movie snack caddy apart! We went with a lightsaber nameplate since they’re all Star Wars lovers.
I use E6000 for permanent glue. It’s a simple assembly to get a flat design that’s only a few millimeters thick to adhere to the side. Since then, we make sure to hand-wash the containers to keep them in top shape.
Birthday Party Idea with Movie Snack Trays
Side note, can you imagine how fun they would be for at-home cinema-themed birthday parties? I can just see a concessions stand or candy cart and gourmet popcorn bar ready to go, with each guest holding a movie snack tray with their own custom name on it.
In fact, the smiles on our summer movies group let me know how much kids love these!
Fun Movie Snack Ideas
Naturally, you’ll want to fill your movie snack tray with snacks. Here are some ideas for food items that fit perfectly in the movie snack tray caddy.
- Popcorn
- Candy
- Movie Theater Box Candy
- Baked treats
- pizza slices
- hot dog
- crackers
- chips
- pretzels or pretzel bites
- drinks of choice
Truly, you can include anything you’d like, and it makes it so easy to hold it all in one place!
I hope your next family movie night, date night of movie marathons, home movie nights on the couch, or showtime at a theater are full of great snacks and easy snacking with these snack trays!
Like this fun movie night idea? You might like these posts too:
How to Start a Movie Day Tradition
