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How to Create Your Own Backyard Movie Party Cars

Use your imagination to bring the drive-in to your backyard

By Gwendolyn Dattage, publisher of Macaroni Kid St. George, Utah July 30, 2020

There is nothing I love more than friends gathered together having a good time. I wanted to do one more backyard party with the neighbors before summer was officially over, so we threw together a backyard movie party, complete with drive-in cars for the kids. It was a huge hit and something that will become a yearly tradition.


Materials:

  • Boxes big enough for kids to sit in
  • Duct tape
  • Masking tape
  • Posterboard
  • Spray paint
  • Washi tape
  • Small black paper plates or paint white ones
  • Yellow construction paper

Instructions:

  1. Tape over any handle holes in the boxes with masking tape or duct tape. I went to my local grocery store for boxes and asked a worker in the produce department who was happy to share empty banana boxes.
  2. Cut poster board into rectangles the width of the box and duct tape it onto the box to make a snack holder.
  3. Spray paint the entire box. We used a couple of different colors so the cars weren't all matching.
  4. Use colored duct tape and washi tape to decorate.
  5. Glue 4 paper plates on the box as the wheels.
  6. Cut circles out of yellow construction paper and tape them on as headlights.
  7. Print out or draw license plates with the kids' names on them and tape them to the back of the box.

You now have some fun cars that will make the kids' night! Pop some popcorn, get out some snacks, and put the movie on a screen in the backyard.

Check out our fun video for more specifics on how to make a backyard movie party car!

Gwendolyn Dattage is the publisher of Macaroni Kid St. George, Utah.