Having a home theater is a great deal of fun, but the real fun is in sharing the experience with loved ones. When you invite your friends or family over to enjoy a movie night, though, the movies are only one part of what makes the experience so enjoyable. There are so many other ways to ensure that your guests will have an incredible evening, and one way is by providing great refreshments. Although no guest who attends a movie night would ever say no to a can of soda and a bag of popcorn, there are plenty of other options for those who really want to go the extra mile. Do you want your home theater to become known as a true local legend? If you do, you’ve got to choose the right refreshments. These are the most essential refreshments that any well-stocked home theater should have.
Candy Assortment
When you’re choosing the refreshments for your home theater, there are two ways to go about it. One way is by stocking the same boxed candies that you’d find in a traditional theater – and of course, your guests will definitely enjoy that. If you’re willing to go a step further, though, it doesn’t require a lot of effort or money to do something that will really stand out. Try choosing an assortment of candies that theaters would have sold during the time period in which the films you’re screening were released.
It might sound like this would require a lot of research and shopping, but it actually won’t because there are many online candy sellers that have already curated candy assortments by decade. Just choose the decade for the films you’ll be screening, and a big box of candy will show up at your door in a few days. It’s also worthwhile to see if you have a vintage candy seller in your area.
Vapes
In any large enough movie viewing group, you can pretty much guarantee that at least one or two people will be nicotine users. Maybe this is a situation that you’ve actually encountered already. You obviously don’t want people smoking in your expensive home theater, so what can you do? Naturally, you ask those people to step outside and smoke there. That’s problematic if you want your guests to have a great time, though, because it means that those people will end up spending a large portion of the evening outside when they should be enjoying the films and mingling with the other guests. What’s the alternative? Stock your refreshment area with vapes for the nicotine users. Vaping in an enclosed room won’t harm your furniture or leave a lingering odor.
Don’t forget that there are actually two forms of vaping. Some people vape to replace the nicotine in cigarettes, and others use vape pens from companies like Rokin Vapes as a way to consume potent herbal extracts. Herbal vaping is something that even those who don’t use nicotine are likely to enjoy, and a bit of herbal refreshment is a great way to add a little something extra to your favorite comedies or concert films.
Soda Machine
Although a mini fridge stocked with cans or bottles of soda will certainly provide more than enough liquid refreshment for a long movie night, this is yet another area where you can do even better if you’re willing to go the extra mile. Have you ever noticed that the fountain drinks available at theaters and restaurants seem to taste better than their bottled equivalents? It’s because you consume a fountain drink immediately after it’s mixed. Fountain drinks taste fresher, and they’re also more effervescent. Installing a soda machine in your home theater is something that will truly wow your guests.
If a full-fledged soda fountain isn’t in your budget, there’s no need to worry because a home soda siphon costs much less and can do the job just as well. You’ll just have to keep it stocked with CO2 cartridges, which are available online and in any restaurant supply store.
Nut Roaster
There’s a reason why popcorn is the most popular theater snack. It’s affordable and tasty, and it smells great. There’s also something about watching and listening to popping corn that never gets old. Another feature of popcorn is that it’s possible to cook and serve it out of a mobile cart. By the mid-1800s, popcorn was already one of America’s most popular street snacks. When the first movie theaters began to appear in the early 20th century, popcorn was a natural match. To this day, nothing reminds people of their favorite films more quickly than the smell of popcorn with plenty of salt and butter.
In short, none of your guests are going to say no if you want to serve popcorn at your next movie night. Even if it comes out of the microwave, your friends and family will love it. As with all other home theater refreshments, though, there’s an opportunity to go the extra mile here if you’d like to do more. Try buying a nut roaster and giving your guests some freshly roasted almonds with cinnamon and sugar. Roasted nuts are especially appropriate if you’re planning to screen some holiday films. No other scent could possibly set the mood more quickly.
Catered Sandwiches
If you’re planning to host a longer movie night and are planning to screen more than one or two movies, you’ll want to serve food that’s a bit more substantial than popcorn, nuts and candy. One of the problems with serving real meals in a home theater, though, is that many of the options you might consider have the potential to be problematic. You probably don’t want to serve burgers, for instance, because the last thing that you want your home theater to smell like is old beef fat. Pizza is also problematic because the grease and sauce can potentially stain your expensive furniture.
If you’re looking for a food option for a movie night that doesn’t require a lot of money and isn’t likely to cause problems for your furniture, consider calling a local restaurant or supermarket and having them build a sandwich spread for you. Catered sandwiches cost less than you might think, and they’re not likely to leave lingering odors or stain your furniture. The best part is that all you need to do is put the spread out on a table and let your guests serve themselves.
