A NIGHT IN watching movies is always tempting, but nestling into the couch with some popcorn and the warm glow of the TV is never more appealing than in wintertime.

As temperatures drop and the nights get darker, there’s no feeling like an evening in, surrounded by loved ones, snacks on the coffee table, and a good movie on the TV.

In this week’s edition of the Allianz Home Magazine, we’re giving you tips on how to plan the perfect Christmas movie night. 

Decide what’s showing

When it comes to any movie night, you want to know what’s on the bill before your guests arrive. There are many ways to go about this. You could pick five movies and throw a poll into your WhatsApp group, or you could simply ask your guests what kind of vibe they’re feeling.

For the perfect Christmas movie night, you could ask all of your guests to name their three favourite Christmas movies, and then pick the two that appear most frequently. To refresh your guests’ memory, you could suggest a few Christmas classics, such as:

• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• Elf
• It’s A Wonderful Life
• Home Alone
• Miracle on 34th Street

Sort out your seats

When it comes to hosting a movie night, there is no greater faux pas than running out of seating so that somebody needs to sit on the ground or an uncomfortable chair. 

It’s possible to be creative with your seating. If you don’t have enough couch space, invest in enough cushions and pillows to build a comfortable nest or a fort on the floor. To create a very Christmassy vibe, it would be nice to provide soft blankets for your guests to get warm. A nice touch could be to provide mini-hot water bottles for everyone that can be refilled during pause-breaks. 

It’s also essential that your screen be well-positioned and visible to all guests, which may take some rearranging. Unless you decide to take our next suggestion…

You’re projecting

While it might take a little planning and a bit of financial investment, one way to make a movie night really special is to get your hands on a projector. Watching movies on a projector will give your movie night a drive-in theatre kind of vibe; all you need is a white wall to aim your projector at. Projectors are available online at a cost of less than €200, and the cinematic feeling of watching a film projected against an entire wall will guarantee you a memorable evening. 

No matter how you’re planning on watching, it’s important to be prepared. If you’re watching by connecting your laptop to a TV, remember that you’ll need an HDMI cable — and an adapter if your laptop doesn’t have an HDMI port. 

Give them the cinema experience

One issue you might face is having a seating arrangement where not everyone has access to the snacks. One solution to this is to make everybody their own box of popcorn (or crisps, or whatever it is your guests like to snack on) so that nobody has to shift or move or get up to enjoy their food. 

Popcorn boxes can be bought cheaply online, and using them means that everyone can personalise their snacks. Whether they like butter and salt on their popcorn or want to take the rogue move of mixing in some chocolate, everybody’s happy. Festive snacks are also a must: you definitely want to have mince pies laid out, and the option of a nice hot chocolate with all the trimmings — marshmallows, cinnamon and chocolate flakes.  

Making some mulled wine to give your guests upon arrival will also ensure your home has a nice Christmas aroma for the evening.