The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

ADVENTURE: Dinner and a Movie

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is probably one of my top five movies of all time. Aside from being an incredible story, it was just so well done. We’ve watched it more than a couple of times as a family over the years! For this movie, consider the following fun things to do WHILE you are watching the movie. Some of them might require you to stop the movie momentarily, others won’t (as long as you have them prepared beforehand.) To maximize the fun, do not let your family know what you have planned or what’s coming. Even if you only do ONE of the fun things on the list, it will surprise your family and make it special! Nothing’s ever too small to be noticed!

(This list is detailed in chronological order according to the movie)

  1. Hide & Seek – In the beginning of the movie, once the children arrive at the professor’s house, they play a game of Hide & Seek. You can either play a quick game before you start the movie or…which would be more fun…stop the movie and play a quick game right then. It won’t take but 5-10 minutes to play (depending on the size of your home and number of players.) For added fun, download the song “Oh Johnny” by the Andrews Sisters (it’s the song playing in the background when the children are playing Hide & Seek in the movie!)
  2. Have some tea made and ready so when Lucy is visiting Mr. Tumnus for the first time, they can be drinking some hot tea with them. (Even if the children do not like tea, it can be fun to drink it along with someone like Mr. Tumnus!)
  3. Turkish Delight is a type of jelly candy that is covered with white powdered sugar. As a fun activity before the movie, earlier in the day, make a batch of it with your children. It’s a very simple recipe (check youtube for your pick of 100 different videos showing how to make it.) When Edmund first meets the Queen, she gives him Turkish Delight to eat – and your children will love eating it, too!
  4. When all four children enter Narnia together for the first time they each wear a different coat (because the Witch had declared it forever Winter in Narnia.) At this time pass out everyone’s coats to wear! Make sure everyone wears them until Narnia begins to thaw!
  5. If you are planning an actual dinner, a good time to eat it would be when the children all meet with the beavers to eat inside their home.
  6. When Edmund heads to the Witch’s castle, he sees a stone tiger. He takes a burnt stick and draws a mustache on the tiger with it. At this time, allow each child to draw a mustache on each other with an eyebrow pencil. These easily wash off afterwards.
  7. Once the Witch grows tired of Edmund, she locks him inside her ice prison. There he’s given a cup of frozen water and, what looks like, some type of dark bread. This is easy to create, simply freezing some water in some coffee mugs ahead of time and baking/buying some large muffins (crumbling the tops a bit so that they don’t look quite so pretty!)
  8. As the children are lead by the beavers, they meet Santa Claus (or so it is presumed) and each child is given a special gift. It might be fun at this time to hand each child a small wrapped gift to open.
  9. Later, Peter is knighted by Aslan for defending himself and his sisters against one of the wolves. A party supply store has swords you can purchase (or you can simply make one) and it would be a good time at this point to knight of your children in the same way.
  10. Eventually Edmund makes his way back to his siblings and is eating breakfast in Aslan’s camp. It appears that they are eating eggs and toast – a sampling of each ought to do it for this portion of the movie.
  11. Likewise at party supply stores one can easily find some paper king/queen crowns rather inexpensively. When the four children are crowned kings and queens of Narnia at the end of the movie, crown your children, as well.