Don’t get lost when you fall down the rabbit hole!

In sixth grade, I had two books I read over and over again. The first is Peter Pan, and the second was Alice in Wonderland and its sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass. I loved reading her adventures, and I even found a third book not written by Lewis Carroll. In high school, I was given the Annotated Lewis Carroll. With all of that background, I, of course, HAD to get my kids to read Alice in Wonderland and have our Alice in Wonderland movie night as part of our book and a movie night.

(This post contains affiliate links)

Alice in Wonderland synopsis

In Alice in Wonderland (this copy has the first two books, and the original Tenniel illustrations), Alice follows a white rabbit and discovers a whole new world underground with an iconic cast of characters from the Mad Hatter to the Cheshire Cat. In junior high I memorized all of You Are Old Father William.

Alice Through the Looking Glass has Alice wondering what the world is like on the other side of the looking glass, only to discover she can go through the looking glass to explore the world for herself. In high school, I memorized the entirety of the Walrus and the Carpenter poem and the Jabberwocky poem for drama class. I can still quote the entirety of the Jabberwocky (and amazed my kids by reciting it offhand when Jeff mentioned it).

The third book written by someone else is Alice through the Needle’s Eye, and I need to try and hunt down a copy of this book. I don’t remember much of it except it literally rained puppies and kittens.

If you enjoy the Alice books I highly recommend picking up the Annotated Lewis Carroll. I loved reading it in high school, it’s got all of his works, and I loved reading the commentary on what was meant by some of the comments, as well as learning more about Lewis Carroll in real life (he was an odd duck for sure).

 

Alice in Wonderland movie night snacks

I had a blast putting together the Alice in Wonderland movie night snacks. I was so incredibly happy to make them all.

There are two main Alice in Wonderland movies: the Disney animated Alice in Wonderland (not currently available on DVD it looks like) and the weird live-action Alice in Wonderland (that feels like a rip off of Looking Glass Wars, and not well done at that)

tarts- because the Jack of Hearts stole the tarts and was on trial for it in the book, of course in the Disney cartoon, it was some random playing cards. I picked up some from our local HEB.

Mad Hatter’s Hat- we had some chocolate cookies with marshmallows on them to be top hats. Of course, I have my Mad Hatter tea cup, that I need to show off.

flower garden- of course, we had to have some of the nosy flowers pop up as cookies, I used my great-great-grandma’s Santa cookie recipe

pocket watch- this was a sugar cookie with piping to make a clock. The kids helped this time around, so it was a bit messy

playing cards- graham crackers with marshmallow fluff and icing for the shapes

rabbit hole- Oreos

Cheshire Cat- sugar cookies with cat heads and big icing smiles

Caterpillar- gummy worms

door- just figuring out how to get through the door was a major endeavor, so we made graham cracker doors with frosting door knobs, if I’d thought about it better, I would have made the door knobs be a chocolate chip or an M&M

Drink me bottles- I bought bottles of root beer and tied the drink me sign around them

eat me- I meant to pick up some fairy cakes or something similar for the eat me, but I figured I had quite enough sugary snacks at this point

We didn’t end up having any sort of meal with this movie, which is a shame because I quite like doing that. I need to brainstorm some good food to do as a meal with Alice in Wonderland, maybe some tea foods….

Just for fun, here’s my fun Alice in Wonderland dishes

This really has nothing to do with our Alice in Wonderland movie night, I just wanted to show off my cool tea sets.

• Mad Hatter teacup– I got this at a teacup exchange
• Mad Tea Party teapot– apparently this so screams “Ticia” I’ve been given it twice, and I bought it for myself (It’s okay, the first one broke in a handwashing incident and so it was good to get a replacement)
• Alice in Wonderland teacup– I linked to the tea set by the same people because I can’t find my cup, sadness
• The final tea pot I made at a local paint your own pottery, and I love it
• Topsy Turvey Tea– Princess bought me this tea when we went to Disney World a few years ago, and I’ve been saving the last tea bag because I love it so much. If I’d known how good it was I would have bought several more boxes….
• You know, I think I should maybe make an Alice in Wonderland gift list…..

More 5th grade books made into a movie