Create Cozy Memories with Winter Movies for Kids
As the winter and cold weather season continues after the holidays, there's nothing quite like getting cozy with your family for a movie night. Winter movies for kids create the perfect opportunity to snuggle under blankets, share treats, and enjoy quality time together.
Whether you're looking for animated adventures or heartwarming live-action stories, I'm sharing my family's favorite winter movies for kids plus all the ways we make our family movie nights special!
As a mom of three, I've learned that putting together a memorable movie night to watch winter movies for kids is all about making it a fun experience! From making special snacks together to setting up a cozy fort, these seemingly small touches are the building blocks of core family memories.
The best winter movies for kids offer something for everyone: enough excitement to keep little ones engaged, enough heart to make the grown-ups tear up a bit, and themes that spark conversations.
Why Winter Family Movie Nights Are The Perfect Way to Bond
When it's too cold to play outside and it gets dark ssoo early, having a family movie night and watching winter movies for kids together gives your family something to look forward to while creating a sense of togetherness.
Cozy nights watching winter movies for kids are the perfect family bonding activity. You're all sitting cuddled up together, laughing - maybe even shedding a few tears?! - and creating inside jokes from movie lines. In our very busy world, this simple tradition of watching winter movies for kids together as a family is a wonderful opportunity to just enjoy slow and relaxed time together.
A Special Movie Night Snack Time
No winter movie night is complete without treats! For a fun winter twist, add a drizzle of white chocolate drizzle or cinnamon sugar to your classic popcorn. Set up a candy concessions station. Serve hot cocoa on especially chilly nights!
Here's one of my favorite discoveries if you are looking for a winter (or any season) snack station: indoor s'mores! I bought this amazing s'mores maker from Amazon, letting us make delicious s'mores right in our kitchen! The kids absolutely love it, and it adds an element of coziness to our winter movie nights. Making s'mores while watching winter movies for kids has become one of our most requested traditions!
Dinner & Bedtime Prep for Winter Family Movie Nights
One thing I've learned about making our family movie nights go smoothly is that timing matters! The key is doing the math backward from when your bedtime routine needs to start, then figuring out when dinner fits in from there!
We try to eat a little earlier when we're planning a movie night, and we have the kids do their bath or shower before we start the movie. That way, they're pretty much ready for bed when the movie wraps up! Just brush their teeth (if you have snacks or s'mores during the movie night), then into bed.
Pizza is absolutely one of our go-to meals on movie nights! We typically do takeout, but if we do decide to cook, we make our own pizza! My kids absolutely love helping make their own pizzas on these nights before we settle in and watch our favorite winter movies for kids. It becomes a full family activity that's actually really fun!
Check out my list of our favorite pizza-making supplies!
Ways to Make Kids Winter Movie Nights a Bit Extra!
Most of our family movie nights look pretty basic, and that's absolutely the way we love it! Snuggling on the couch with a throw blanket that we all try to squeeze under together (you know you've been there, fighting for blanket space with your kids) with a bowl of popcorn and one of your favorite winter movies for kids is all you need!
That simple setup is honestly perfect. But if there are times when you might want to make movie night a little EXTRA, check out some fun ideas that take your family movie night to the next level!
Build a Fort Theater
Make a blanket fort with chairs, blankets, sheets, towels, or even a fort-building kit if you have one!
Create a Floor Bed Cinema
Blow up your inflatable beds or air mattresses instead of sitting on the couch! It makes movie night feel like a mini sleepover. Here are some great options for portable beds that work perfectly for watching winter movies for kids!
Plan a Movie Marathon
Cold-weather months are the perfect time to watch a marathon of winter movies for kids! You can start in the early afternoon and do a marathon until bedtime. This works especially well when you want to watch a movie and its sequel (hello, Frozen and Frozen 2!). Make it a whole-day event with multiple snack stations and breaks as you make your way through your winter movies for kids choices.
Decorate Your Viewing Space
Transform your family room into a cinema with special decorations! The decorations make watching feel like being in a movie theater.
Project It Differently
In keeping with the movie theater vibe, use an indoor projector and project onto the ceiling or a blank wall instead of watching on the TV. Watching from a different angle makes even familiar winter movies for kids feel new and exciting. Kids especially love when we project onto the ceiling because they can lay flat on their backs and look straight up!
Pick one idea that sounds fun to your family and give it a try—you might just create a new tradition within your tradition!
Complete Lists of Winter Movies for Kids to Watch
To help make planning your family movie night even easier, I've put together two lists of our favorite winter movies for kids—one for animated films and one for live-action. All of these winter movies for kids are rated G or PG, making them perfect for families with kids of any age! Remember to do your own research on the movie before you decide if it's a fit for your family.
Animated Winter Movies for Kids
Our List of Favorite Animated Winter Movies for Kids
- Frozen
- Frozen 2
- Ice Age
- Ice Age: The Meltdown
- Rise of the Guardians
- Balto
- Happy Feet
- Abominable
- Brother Bear
- The Snowman
- March of the Penguins
- Smallfoot
- Arctic Dogs
- Alpha and Omega
- Penguins of Madagascar
- Norm of the North
Our List of Favorite Live-Action Winter Movies for Kids
- Paddington
- Paddington 2
- Cool Runnings
- Snow Dogs
- The Mighty Ducks
- Iron Will
- Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
- The Call of the Wild
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
- Babe
- Racing Stripes
- Because of Winn-Dixie
- Secondhand Lions
- Alaska
- Fly Away Home
Making Winter Movie Nights a Lasting Tradition
The real magic of watching winter movies for kids as a family happens when it becomes a tradition! Consider setting a weekly movie night throughout the winter months where everyone knows that Friday evening means snuggling up together for winter movies. This predictable rhythm gives kids something to look forward to and helps everyone prioritize family time.
Let your kids participate in choosing which winter movies for kids to watch. Create a system where family members take turns selecting from your approved list, or draw titles from a hat. This involvement helps children feel invested in the tradition and teaches them about compromise and shared decision-making. As they get older, your kids will remember not just the winter movies for kids they watched, but the special traditions and family time together!
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. All recommendations are based on items I personally use and love with my own children.
Written by Brittany, Stay at Home Activity Mom
Brittany is a former elementary school teacher turned stay-at-home mom of three. Passionate about children learning through play, she began sharing her simple, hands-on, and education activities on her Instagram @stayathomeactivitymom so that other parents could see how fun this type of at-home learning can be.
