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

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

My husband and I both work shifts for the NHS, but make sure that we always make time to eat as a family. Even if this means one of us waiting for the other to come home and having a special midnight feast, or getting up early to make pancakes for a post night breakfast. If we have an evening off together we always make a nice meal from scratch and find something good to watch on netflixs. Now we have our lo (4weeks) our time together as a family is even more special.

Movie nights (or late afternoon so ds2 (3) isn't in bed too late). Ds1 (8) makes the individual cinema tickets (he usually draws a flower on mine, although once I had a star wars light sabre fight), ds2 helps me make the popcorn. We close the curtains, use torches to find our seats, and sit down together to watch a DVD.

We like a board game. We have loads so the kids pick what they'd like to play (often one choice each). We get big mugs of tea for DH and me and hot chocolates for the DCs. A bowl of crisps/popcorn/sweets/chocolate and settle down to it. We mostly play cooperative games so there are less tantrums!

my wee dd 2.8 is a bit young but ds 5.7 is just the right age to chill on sofa with us, pizza, sweets/choc and a family film. the struggle is to watch something other than star wars! though tonight it's just me and dh and we're at a loss! watching strictly movie week and they're eating popcorn. dh said 'ooh we've got popcorn' but I've got a sore throat so good and now feeling very sorry for myself. might dispatch dh to shops for a chocolate remedy.

It's easier doing family nights in during autumn and winter than the summer for some reason!

Saturday night is snuggle up time in front of the TV watching Strictly and Dr Who - nothing beats it and it's been the same since DS was 5 - he's nearly 15 now....(not sure how much longer these halcyon evenings will go on )

Family nights in during the autumn/winter involve hot chocolate with whizzy cream and home made biscuits whilst we play games, we love mahjong! Family nights in during the summer involve playing in the garden until it gets dark and then all tucking up in our bed for stories.

2 options, both revolving around films.

1. Home made popcorn, sit down and watch something from Wuaki all together (the process of choosing takes as long as the film itself!)

1. The more advanced version of the above where we turn the living room into snuggle heaven with sofa bed on the floor, duvets, pillows and everyone in pyjamas. Popcorn as above but maybe a few more treats as well as this is once in a way.

In the summer we sit out late outside our French windows just looking at the stars, smelling the honeysuckle , drinking cold wine (adults, obv) or soft drinks, eating crisps . Or we might have a fire in our fire pit and toast marshmallows . We do this often in the summer , in inner S London.

In winter we watch films under fleece blankets . I like my sheepskin Uggalikes, once my day shoes are off and they are on, I relax. We like our blankets even if we don't need them for warmth.

We are having to make new family traditions due to a separation....so...Cadbury's please try to include us single parents! Me and DD (and our 2 cats=part of the family) snuggle on the sofa and take turns to choose a programme (or in the case of DD the latest YOu tube release from her current favourite pop star!)

Saturday is family night in our house - DD and I snuggle up with chocolate/crisps and watch Strictly, then she goes to bed and DH and I snuggle up with wine/cider and watch Dr Who!

My dad was always n charge of chocolate (and the remote control) and would randomly throw you a strip of chocolate broken ff a big block.

If you failed to catch it, it's up to you whether you care about dog hair or whether you eat it anyway.

Smashables sound like a terrible plan really - how do you know if you've had a "fair" amount?

Oh, yes, P.S We get the cousins round and play tracks on YouTube with the karaoke 'singalong' versions, everyone chooses a song in turn.
And we like big tubs of chocs - Heroes.

The DC love having a movie night, snuggled under a blanket on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn.

We've a few family night options!

Movie night- homemade popcorn and toppings, all snuggled together for a movie. Sometimes the kids set out the choices and make tickets etc like the cinema. Sometimes we pull the duvets down"!

Board game night- choices brought out and decided on - jenga/ buckaroo then when the younger ones goes to bed clue do/ monopoly

Lots of snacks!

A Disney film

Some food we can eat in front of TV as a treat takeaway or homemade

Blankets, comfy clothes, low lighting

Might be a 'picnic' on the living room floor. Which is good as no one moans about what is for dinner and everyone eats it all. Usually followed by a massive fruit salad in a big bowl and everyone has a fork.

Movie night with us and the older DC. Love snuggling up under a blanket with popcorn and treats.

Playing monopoly (the adventure time version) with treats.

And not quite night time but have a Sunday morning making American style pancakes and eating them all together. Love pancakes!

For a start, we dont have tv's in bedrooms so we tend to come together most evenings, also we eat together round the table, or in front of the TV. Most nights its it sats with"lets find something we can all watch", normally this will be Marvel, GBBO, Gotham, etc. My family consists of me, dh, dd (17) and ds (13). Soemtimes it is not all of us but it is most likely to work if chocolate ( and prosecco with my dd) is involved.

We have family games and film nights. Each of the kids choose a board game to play, accompanied by snacks then we all cosy up on the sofa with quilts and watch a film together.

It may be corny be we love a game of charades. Then a nice meal followed by a family film.

We get a big pizza, lots of yummy chocolate and board games

My daughter is very creative so usually we make things together on weekend evenings, last weekend we made a small latch hook rug kit, my daughter has it proudly in her room !

We have a family film night where everyone takes it in turns to choose the film. We get snuggled under blankies with pots of sweet goodies.

We love getting everyone together eating popcorn and watching a great
movie. It's one of our favorite things

We snuggle on my bed which is enormous and really comfy, cashmere blankets, hot chocolate and a movie, comedy or game show like 'would I lie to You' which we can play too - bliss!

We either watch movies with goodies or we have a games night, either board games or on the consoles, always with treats :)