Tag Archives: family movie night

Our Halloween Tradition Watching The Nightmare Before Christmas

by

We have a small tradition in my family where around every Halloween, we watch the movie called “The Nightmare Before Christmas“.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

It’s a great tradition where we start the fire (for the first time of the fall season), and then get some of the normal snacks (popcorn, pop, etc).  Next we pop in our five year old DVD and sit back and enjoy the movie.  It’s a fun time for the entire family and we look forwards to it each year.

The movie is full of great still motion effects and catchy tunes, but honestly, I’ve never really thought about any message from the movie other than the basic storyline.

This year I realized the similarities between business expansion , taking risk, failing, and the rewards of trying.

You see the main character “Jack the Pumpkin King” pretty much had a monopoly over the entire Halloween holiday.  The storyline makes you believe that he’s the drive for the scaring part of Halloween.  In the movie Jack allude to how successful they were at their efforts for Halloween during the current year, the beginning of the movie.

Where it get interesting is that even when the Pumpkin King is at the top of his game, he decided it’s not enough.  That’s when he stumbles upon Christmas Town.  He tried to take over the tradition, having Santa Claus abducted under the guise of giving Santa a holiday then he has a go at delivering Christmas presents.

Well, even after a log bout of research and development, when he goes to deliver the presents, he uses the techniques that worked with Halloween Town instead.  The results are disastrous!

As he reviews his experiences, he was initially upset on the failure that happened.  But eventually, he realizes that he tried is best and at least he gave the folks in Christmas town something to talk about for years to come.  He basically licks his wounds and realized it was worth it to give it a try.  He then goes back this Halloween and frees Santa Claus.  Mr. Claus was upset at first, but at the end, give Jack and the characters in Halloween town a special present that they all seem to enjoy.

There is also a sub-theme where Sally (and stitched together doll?) supports him and tried to talk some sense into Jack.  It ends in as a love story…

It’s a great movie, with some great messages if you look for them.

Happy Halloween Traditions,

MR.

The True Cost Of A Family Movie Night

by

Yes, now that school is out, the kids wanted to have a family movie night yesterday (Tuesday), so my wife caved (probably she caved because my daughter asked, and it’s hard to turn her down when my my beautiful 6 year old daughter’s face is all scuffed up from her accident yesterday).  We both hurt when we look at her, I know I would have caved too 🙁

So, thinking about it, I decided to post the cost associated with our displaced family movie night (it’s displaced because it’s usually on Fridays).

Costs of Hosting Our Family Movie Night:

  • The movie media (DVD):  I usually go to the library to get the movies (although lately, we have been going to red box) during lunch.  Of course, when it is from the library, the cost is free.  It’s free because I typically go to the library every workday to work on this blog.  When it’s Red Box, it’s a buck plus gas…
  • 1 bag of Popcorn (4.00 for a package of 3), so since we only use 1 bag, it’s runs us $1.41 (this number includes taxes).
  • Reeses Pieces and other candies:  oh lets say 75 cents.
  • Pop for my everybody except my daughter who drinks juice still: $1.25
  • Electricity: Whoa!  I’m getting way to detailed, besides the cost for electricity would be the same since the TV would be on anyway… we’ll skip this cost!

So all told, if we average the movie media (DVD) cost between the library and Red Box, the total cost for “Family Movie Night” comes to….:  $3.91!!!  This number contrasts to my previous calculations where I underestimated that the total costs came to only $2.00

Not as bad as going to a movie theater, but still not free either!  I can honestly say, that before we just did this exercise, I just had a guess with respect as to how much we spent for a “family movie night” event!  My previous estimate was too low…

However, the $3.91 cost is well worth the family bonding & snuggling times, and laughs that the entire family encounters as we watch the movies together.

My favorite part of Family Movie Night is hearing the honest laugher from my son when he finds something funny.  It’s truly heart warming…

What is the cost of your favorite near free family activities?  Most have hidden costs that you don’t often associate with the activity itself… like gasoline cost to go to the park, etc…

Enjoy the summer!

 -MR