Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?! One of my all time favorite Christmas movies is Elf and there's nothing better than spending the day cozied up in pajamas while watching a movie to kick off your holiday spirit. Whether with your children or watching with your friends, it truly captures the magic of the season.
Inspired by the movie, I wanted to emulate the candy cane forest and capture the essence of a beloved movie. There's nothing a small balloon arch and delicious sacks that can't make it feel like a festive wonderland...so I'm excited to share some tips and trips for re-creating at home!
How to set up a candy cane forest
While our apartment is tiny, we were still able to transform our living room area to create a magical movie viewing party. For starters, we made a small balloon arch using two different tones of green, red, and white balloons. You can find a kit on Amazon or at your local craft store, mine happened to be balloons I had used for a previous party. The arches can be kept small, and we used the two we created to frame the television on the right hand side and hanging the second one over it using string and packing tape to adhere to the wall (command hooks work well too!).
To further enhance the arch, I used shimmery tinsel door fringe from Target to also frame the arch and then hung paper garland from Party City and cut out snowflakes like the toy store scene in the movie. I also used the below items to help make the setup feel even more festive:
It might seem cheesy, I don't have my Christmas tree setup yet but I wanted to make something that would still be festive so I made a fringe tree by looking strips of cut tablecloth around different sized string and hung it on the wall to form a Christmas tree. This tutorial is great for showing you how to look the fringe!
Elevated movie snacks
For a more 'grown up' vibe, creating a snack and cheese board, waffles and White Russians made the day feel even more festive. When building the snack board we used red, white and green items to keep it to our color scheme while also taking elements from the movie like Pop Tarts, marshmallows and M&Ms:
Strawberries
Raspberries
Mozzarella balls
Marshmallows
M&Ms
Pop Tarts *for the tree bark!
Cranberry encrusted goat cheese log
Dried cranberries
Crackers
Rosemary *for tree garnish!
Each items was placed in clusters around the board, and then we used rosemary sprigs to tuck into each cluster for a tree like effect. As another snack option, we found this adorable snowflake waffle maker at Target and used it to make waffles topped with crushed candy canes and marshmallows (of course, with syrup too!).
Lastly, we created a signature cocktail - a buddy the elf inspired White Russian, using:
Ingredients
2 shots vodka
1 shot Kahlúa
Splash heavy cream
Ice
Crushed candy cane / whole candy cane for garnish
Directions
Pour vodka and Kahlúa into glass with ice.
Top off with heavy cream.
Garnish with crushed candy canes.
Dress the part!
My friends and family know how much I love themed holiday pajamas, and ones that match a movie night are no exception. Hanna Andersson has the cutest family pajamas, including Elf ones for adults - check them out if your looking for some adorable (and extremely comfortable!) sets to lounge in.
