Hotel Transylvania Monster Valentine's Day Party

Sunday, February 10, 2013

DISCLOSURE:  I was chosen by Crowdtap.com to host a party to celebrate the release of Hotel Transylvania on DVD and Blu-ray.  All opinions are my own.

With the January 29 release of Hotel Transylvania on DVD and Blu-ray, I thought it would be a great excuse to have a party and have the kids and their friends over to watch the movie.  With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I thought a Monster Valentine theme would be perfect!

If you haven't seen it, Hotel Transylvania tells the story of Dracula and his daughter, Mavis.  To protect her from humans, he builds a hotel far from humans and it becomes a refuge for other monsters.  Before Mavis's big 118th birthday celebration, a human manages to find the hotel and he and Mavis fall in love.  Dracula has to learn that he can't protect his daughter forever.




To help me brainstorm ideas for the Monster Valentine's Party, I hit Pinterest and made a board of the ideas that I came across for the party: Hotel Transylvania Monster Valentine's Party Board.  I didn't get a chance to do everything, but my favorite was the Make Your Own Monster Valentine's Day cards idea from the Better In Bulk blog.


I cut out monster shapes out of patterned scrapbook paper and printed out Valentine's Day sayings for the kids to use to make their own Valentine's Day cards.  I bought googly eyes, foam stickers and colored cardstock for the kids to use.  The party kit from Crowdtap also included Hotel Transylvania themed Valentine's Day cards that I printed on cardstock for the kids to use if they didn't want to make their own.


To continue with the monster theme, I also made goodie bags out of plain paper bags.  I glued strips of monster scrapbook paper to them and then drew monster faces on them.

The ones with eyelashes were for the girls.

In the bags, I included a small treat bag with candy, Valentine's pencils, monster stamps and a box of conversation hearts that I covered with a monster face.  The bags were big enough for the kids to put any Valentine's Day cards that they made at the party to bring home.

I set up the activities to be completed at the kitchen table.  The kids could come and go any time during the party to make the Valentine's Day cards.  I also had coloring sheets and zombie masks that they could make.


The kids wanted to decorate the front door for the party.  I printed out a Hotel Transylvania sign, but, oops, all I had was pink zebra-print cardstock to print on.  My son made a "No Humans Allowed" sign and a picture of a scary spider roaring.


For the spread, I tried to have a mix of Valentine's and monster-theme food.  Plus, some other more filling foods that the adults and the kids could eat, since we were having the party at dinner time.


I made:




Bloody Valentine Cups (Jell-O with whipped cream and strawberries)

Salty Bones (breadsticks)

Salmon Cakes with Wasabi Avocado Dipping Sauce

Broccoli Bacon Salad

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Plus, a fruit plate and a vegetable crudite with hummus.

I also decorated the Solo cups holding the spoons and forks with monster faces:


When the first kids arrived, my husband and I were still busy getting things ready so they ran off to play in my son's room.  Once we had most of everything out and plated, I had them start with making Valentine's Day cards.


Once a couple more kids arrived, they all wanted to go watch the movie.  So I set up the DVD player and popped some popcorn and served them in little popcorn boxes.

Most of them really liked the movie, though a couple kids were in and out of the room.  Like these two, who went back to making Valentine cards.


The kids all had a great time and did not want to leave!  My kids have watched Hotel Transylvania a few more times since the party.  My son ended up using the Hotel Transylvania printed Valentines to bring to his classroom party and my daughter is bringing the Monster Valentines that she made.

Hotel Transylvania Links:

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