Talk to Cadbury’s about your family nights in and you could win a £200 Love2Shop voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Cadbury’s Marvellous Smashables have asked us to find out how you get the whole family together for a cosy night in.

Here’s what they say, "New Cadbury’s Marvellous Smashables are a fun way for all the family to get involved, so we’d love to hear from Mumsnetters about how they encourage the whole family to enjoy a family night in."

So, what do you do to ensure your busy family spends time together? Do you make sure everyone's favourite meal - or dessert - is on the menu? Perhaps there's a TV show that's guaranteed to gather you all in one place? Or do you use more direct tactics like bribery?! Maybe you cut off supply to the wifi or have made the lounge or kitchen an irresistably cosy place to congregate?

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 Love2Shop voucher!

Thanks
MNHQ

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The children are not old enough yet for a proper night in; they are normally in bed by 7pm. If for some reason they are allowed to stay up a but longer, then breadsticks and cheddars are their favourite to nibble on.
Scooby doo they all like watching.

we play a game, all st on the floor..no tv, no phones, just us and fun

TV dinner is a real treat in our house! Bring on the McDonald's and a new film and everyone is happy :)

My kids are young, and don't all agree on films, so we like to have a games night. Board and card games that even the 4yo can play.

Saturday night with a takeaway and X Factor on the TV brings all our family together. Afterwards it is either popcorn or a chocolate treat. Cold, dark evenings snuggled on the sofa with the fire on is really comforting and cosy.

Family night for us is me, DD8 & DS4.

We all choose our favourite takeaway meal (curry for ds & me, pizza for DD) then choose some chocolate or popcorn to have whilst we watch a film.

DC love having the lights down & getting under a fleece blanket - even in the summer

We stick on some Disney songs and dance around the lounge

We like to go 'old school' and get the board games out! Can't beat a game of monopoly or hungry frogs! No screens just time playing together.

Well our family nights in include the pets too. Usually H sprawls on the sofa with a couple of cats, aunty M has one of the recliners with the dog and I have the other recliner with another cat. We all snuggle down and watch a musical - normally a disney one as H is too little to really follow any others. We like to sing along. Sometimes H will get up and do a little dance. We usually have a pack of buttons each and some cheese and apple slices to snack on. After the film we will do a little bit of colouring before bath and bedtime :D

I don't need to encourage mine to have an evening together. At 4 and 2 they would happily spend the entire evening curled up next to me on the sofa watching endless Twirlywoos, Andy's Dinosaur Adventures, Topsy and Tim and Numberjacks on iPlayer.

We love sitting together on a Saturday evening to watch Strictly. My daughter loves it and it's a wonderful family show that we can enjoy together.

we plan days out as a family- usually the zoo or a museum. alternatively we play board games while having a cheeky takeaway..nom nom

Two kinds of family night in our house. First is similar to most posters nights. Takeaway, pj's, blankets, dvd along with chocolate and drinks. Second is if my DH has a night out, as soon as he's gone, me and my two DD's snuggle in my bed with snacks and watch tv together till they fall asleep, he then has to sleep in one of their beds and they get a sleepover in mums bed.

We have pizza parties.
We cook (heat up!) several pizzas and some garlic bread and put it all out on the coffee table. Everyone gets a plate and everyone chooses slices of whichever pizzas they fancy. We finish with ice cream. It's all eaten off our knees rather than at the table, and we put a movie on. 2yo doesn't care what it is so 6yo always gets to choose. We see a LOT of Monsters Inc - we watched it the first time we did this and haven't been able to convince her it's ok to choose other movies sometimes!!

Another movie night here. We dont really eat a meal as such, but we cook lots of finger/party type food (think sausage rolls, mini quiches, pizzas cut into slices etc) and we lay it out and we watch a couple of films. We make an effort to do that all day on Christmas eve and we do it at various times in the year when the latest family film comes on sky.

Doesn't often happen - one of the kids is out every night during the week, but sometimes we do at the weekend. We eat dinner as normal in the dining room, but as a treat, eat pudding (ice cream, sauce, maybe berries) in the living room, watching Strictly and Dr Who.

2 of the 3 children like Strictly and another 2 of the 3 like Dr Who, so quite often we only manage a majority of bodies in the room at the same time! If we ate Cadbury's at the same time though, we might get a full house. Hmm...

For us it varies depending on what we are feeling like- if we want an easy relaxing night it is pizzas and sides before settling down for a film with a sharing bag of chocolate and some popcorn or if we want a special meal we might cook something nice and follow it with my fab chocolate mousse recipe before clearing the table and getting the board games out.
As our children are still young they are still quite happy to do this kind of thing and we don't have to bribe them or switch off wifi - as long as the TV is off and no one is over tired, fraught, cross with their sibling, generally grumpy etc etc we are good to go!

My DH works long hours during the week so on a Saturday we like to have a movie/catch up TV night - pyjamas/onesies, duvet and a huge bowl of popcorn to share. My favourite night of the week!

a cosy night in usually revolve around food in our house. Just the fun of cooking something, usually 4 different things for everyone but all pitching in, although the 2 kids tend to traipse in and out of the kitchen for the 'fun' bits, followed by us all sitting down to eat it together.

It's actually very rare that we don't all sit down together for the evening meal! :-) So evenings together are totally normal, which means you'd almost need to think of something special to make it more than ordinary! lol But that's easy enough by cooking a special dinner, or nice dessert, or some other treat that isn't usually had. Or watching something together.

Cosy nights in are much better during the winter months when we just love snuggling up under the duvet with our onesies on eating tons of popcorn. My DS gets to choose the film but as he is only 4 it's invariably one we have all seen at least ten times before!!!! It's nice if we turn the lights off too as then I can have a little snooze without getting caught.

We love a movie night. A good film. Popcorn. Chocolate. Hot dogs. Lights out and away we go. Our house is divided on popcorn lines. Your either sweet or sweet and salty. There is no swapping. A real treat is salty popcorn mixed with either minstrels or chocolate buttons. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Our best family nights have been the six of us caravanning in autumn. You get back after a long day out, have a hot shower and get into your thickest, fluffiest pyjamas and thick socks. We then get the gas fire roaring, pull the cushions onto the floor and play cards with our four children. Even our five year old can manage the games we have taught them. It always seems so cosy, even if the wind is howling and the rain is pouring in the roof. With hot milk and a tin of chocolate biscuits, what else do you need? The simple pleasures are the best and most treasured memories. :-)

My dd is only 19 months so we make sure she is in bed first and then it's me, dh and ds7 with a big blanket on the sofa! Ds chooses the film and we have snacks which is always popcorn and chocolate!

Watch a cheesy 1980s comedy DVD - that's what we did last week anyways.