Dumbo Themed Dinner

This week, we partied under the big top with a Dumbo themed dinner!

Dumbo has been capturing the hearts of audiences for over 80 years.  The film is the fourth feature in Disney Animated Canon, and a personal favorite of Walt Disney.  Dumbo even has his own high-flying attraction in Disney theme parks across the globe!

The inspiration for our Dumbo themed dinner came from a lucky find I came across on Marketplace.  Someone in our area was giving away a circus play tent, and I knew we had to have it!  Not only would this tent provide hours of fun for the kids, but it would also be the perfect circus element for a Dumbo themed dinner!

Once I obtained our circus tent, I went to work planning a menu for our Dumbo dinner.  There aren’t many food references in Dumbo, so we based our dinner menu on classic circus concessions.  It was a lot of fun getting the kids involved with the planning!

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Circus Concessions

The kids and I brainstormed ideas of what types of food they’d expect to find at a circus.  We came up with corn dogs, popcorn, peanuts, and cotton candy!

Circus Popcorn Mix

To make a fun circus-themed movie snack for the kids, I added animal crackers, M&Ms, and circus peanut candies to our popcorn. 

In all honesty, I hadn’t had circus peanut candies since I was very young.  I completely forgot how terrible I thought they tasted!

Reviews from the kids were mixed, but it was easy enough to pick out the candies for those that wished it.  Although they looked cute, I will certainly not utilize circus peanuts for future popcorn mix!

The animal crackers and M&Ms, however, were a hit.  I’ll take that as a win!

Circus Peanuts

Circus peanuts (NOT the candy kind!) were the only food reference we could think of in Dumbo.  In the film, we see Timothy Q. Mouse share this snack while befriending the little elephant. 

So, I picked up a bag of unshelled peanuts for the kids to snack on during the movie, just like Dumbo!

My two youngest kiddos have never had to shell their peanuts before, so it ended up being a fun (albeit messy) activity for them.  Peanuts just taste better when you have to work a little for them!

Fruit Trains

While planning our Dumbo dinner, it became all too apparent this meal lacked some serious nutrition.  While circus concessions are certainly tasty, they are not the healthiest.  So, I knew I had to come up with something to provide some balance.  Luckily, I stumbled upon this idea for circus fruit trains from My Mommy Style. 

Casey Jr. Circus Train is a major component of Dumbo, so I figured these fruit trains would be a great tie-in for our themed dinner!

I found myself having a lot of fun carving out the shapes and constructing our trains.  And the kids absolutely loved them!

Elephant Ears

Not that we needed any more sugar for our Dumbo dinner, but I didn’t feel our menu would be complete without some elephant ears.  Dumbo’s unique ears are the focus of the film, after all!

I used a recipe from 31 Daily to make our elephant ears.  They were surprisingly easy to put together!

The kids were big fans of the pastry, and they were a great treat to wrap up our Dumbo themed dinner!

Capping the Night With Storytime

But our evening didn’t end with the movie!  The kids were having so much fun enjoying all things Dumbo, we decided to cap the night off with Moonlight Storytime.

Moonlight Storytime turns your phone into a storybook projector, and Dumbo has been one of the kids’ favorites!

We love it because it allows the whole family to bond over our favorite Disney stories before bedtime.

You can check out the Moonlight Storytime collection on Amazon by clicking HERE!

I hope you enjoyed our circus-inspired Dumbo dinner!  Have an idea for our next Disney Themed Dinner?  Let us know in the comments!

Looking for other Disney Themed Dinners?  Check out our Brave Themed Dinner and Enchanted Themed Dinner!

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