How To Plan A Disney Day At Home
| This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. |
Sometimes, you just have to plan a Disney day at home. What do I mean? Well, Mom pulls out all the stops and throws a Mickey-themed day at home complete with Mickey ears and churros. Because a Disney day just isn’t complete without a churro.
Clearly, we’ve been at home for a while and missing our favorite place. Disneyland holds a special place in my heart and so many wonderful memories. We decided we needed to celebrate the park’s reopening with a Disney day at home!
Fun activities and supplies for your Disney day at home don’t have to be expensive. I already had quite a few things, so our Disney day at home was about $10 out of pocket. With a little pre-planning (and some Amazon Prime) you could easily schedule a similar day for under $20.
Here are the 10 activities we planned for our Disney day at home. I hope you feel inspired to have your own magical day!
Supplies Needed:
- Mickey and Minnie Waffle Maker (this one makes them just like the Park) or Frozen Mickey Waffles
- Mickey Ears or Minnie Ears
- Disney T-shirts with your favorite characters – Elise’s Favorites from Happiest Tees on Earth Kid Tees from Kohls (Jumping Bean Brand)
- Disney Coloring Book or Printable Coloring Pages (I love these ones from Happiest Things Studio)
- Mickey Ice Cream Bars or Mickey Ice Cream Sandwiches
- Disney Legos or Disney Duplos
- Mickey Cookie Cutter
- Frozen Churros or make cinnamon toast at home
- Disney Craft Projects
- Disneyland Parade Video
- Disneyland Fireworks Video
- Disney+ or Disney DVDs
- Photos or Photo Albums of other Disney memories – I make mine with Shutterfly.
1. Get Dressed For Your Disney Day At Home
This is all the permission you need to go FULL-OUT with your Disney gear today. Wear your t-shirts, jewelry, ear hats and ear headbands. I wear my Disney t-shirts daily, so this wasn’t a big change for me, but I did wear my Minnie ears and grabbed my son’s Disneyland ears hat for the day. It was so much fun and definitely a mood boost to start our Disney day at home.
My favorite tees are from Happiest Tees on Earth. Erica is an amazing small business owner and she has the cutest shirts. I love supporting other small businesses; especially when they are in the business of spreading happiness and magic!
2. Eat a Disney Breakfast
Just because you’re not at a Disney Park doesn’t mean you can’t start the day with delicious Mickey Waffles. I highly suggest buying this waffle iron if you’re a Disney fan. It makes the best waffles and they look and taste just like the ones from Disneyland. With the double-sided plates, the waffles can be made quickly to keep the plates full for your hungry kids.
If you’re not quite ready to splurge on a Mickey waffle maker, you can find various Disney frozen waffles at your grocery stores. I had to do a little research online to see which store in my area had them, but they were a big hit for breakfast! *They also have Star Wars waffles!
3. Do a Disney Activity: LEGO Parade
We love listening to the sounds of Disneyland on YouTube Music (or whatever music platform you use). I was giddy when I discovered the music track for the Main Street Electrical Parade. We used the Disney Duplos we already had and assembled our own Disney parade in the family room. Mickey led our at-home parade, of course, but Minnie, Simba, and Nala were there too! We turned on the music and rolled our Disney parade around the kitchen island a couple of times. Use your imagination and pretend to pass the castle, the Main Street statue of Walt Disney, the flag pole, and the fire station.
4. Watch a Disney Parade
After our homemade parade, we watched one of the real Disneyland parades on YouTube. We watched the Magic Happens parade on the DisneyParks channel *it has now been removed.
Here are some parades to watch:
5. Eat a Disney Lunch
Break out your Mickey cookie cutter and craft up a fun Mickey-shaped sandwich for lunch! If you don’t have a Mickey-shaped cookie cutter, you can create a Mickey head using circle cutters like I did!
If you’re able to serve items that are round, ask your child to make a Mickey head by putting three of them together. Grapes, raisins, cheese balls, tomatoes, or hot dogs are all good Mickey-making foods.
Other Fun Disney Day at Home Lunch Suggestions:
Disney sprinkles in yogurt
6. Do a Disney Activity: Coloring Pages
Coloring is such a great activity to do together during your Disney Day at Home. Coloring books or pages you can print from home can bring a little Disney magic right to your kitchen table. We love to pick pages with our favorite characters, rides, or land on them and talk about what we will do first back at the park. I highly recommend the free printables from Happiest Things Studio.
7. Watch a Disney Movie + Eat a Churro
Time for a Disney classic! Heat up some frozen churros and pop some popcorn for movie time. Bonus points if you have a used Disney popcorn bucket you can get out and use for your popcorn!
This is a great time to add a Disney blanket, stuffed animal, or other Disney toy into the mix. Set buddies up like they are watching the Disney + or DVD movie with you. We’re giving solid Woody and Andy vibes here.
8. Revisit Disney Memories or Plan For New Ones
I made a Shutterfly book of our first trip to Disneyland with our son and we love to look at it and read some of the stories from the day. We made sure to do this during our Disney Day at Home too! I asked open questions about what his favorite ride was, what treat he was looking forward to having again, and asked him to tell me about what we saw that day.
Some of you might be having a Disney Day at Home because it is too far to travel to Disney and/or have never been there before. One of the best activities of our day was examining the Disneyland map (download your copy here). Look at the map and find the corresponding descriptions on the map key. Circle the rides you would like to go on and give a star to the places you would like to eat.
My friend Liz also has an amazing trip-planning printable that would pair well with looking at the map.
9. Eat a Disney Dinner
Don’t know what to make for dinner? Grab a Disney-inspired recipe and enjoy!
If you don’t want to do a Disney-inspired recipe, you can make your scheduled dinner and cut into Disney shapes (see lunch #5 above).
Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
10. Watch the Disneyland Fireworks Video + Mickey Ice Cream Treats
It’s time to wrap up your Disney Day at Home. Grab your Disney pajamas, a favorite Disney stuffed animal (or two), and your Mickey ice cream treat (Mickey bar or ice cream sandwich)! It is time to watch some fireworks over the Disneyland castle.
We loved our Disney day at home and will definitely do them more frequently in the future. Especially since when you have some of the items already (LEGOs, coloring books, etc.) it makes it really easy to pull off a magical day at home on a small budget!
Check out more of my Disney posts here and have a magical day, friends!
Click here for all my Disney blog posts
Click here for my Monsters, Inc. Halloween Buckets:
Free Disney Halloween Cut File
