Welcome to the second day of this week-long series on ideas and tips for hosting a fabulous Academy Awards Viewing Party! The Oscar theme this year is “We all dream in gold” so I brought it.

I love bringing friends together and entertaining. In yesterday’s post, I shared the idea of setting up a sandwich bar to allow guests to help themselves to food and drinks throughout an Academy Awards Viewing Party. Nobody wants to be in the kitchen missing out on all the fun and setting up a “self-serve” menu makes so much sense! In keeping with that theme, today, it is all about creating a candy and popcorn bar with a movie theatre atmosphere. I set up a buffet with movie theatre candy/popcorn and added some glam by using large gold letters and lights for a Hollywood vibe.

One of the most important tips for entertaining is to make sure that you can enjoy your party and hang out with your friends. Creating a candy and popcorn bar allows you, the host, to have a carefree evening to watch the Academy Awards and lets your guests help themselves to whatever they want throughout this 4-5 hour-long viewing party. Provide a wide variety of candy options, and don’t forget the chocolate!

Below are the step-by-step photos of how I assembled this movie theatre candy and popcorn bar.

I began with a blank wall in our livingroom, I temporarily moved the artwork and lamps that are normally on this buffet table.

Next, I added gold letters that I got at Joann’s Fabric & Craft.

I draped globe lights (from Target) over each letter and used glue-dots to adhere gold stars and a glittery gold banner to the wall.

Simple, yet elegant. After the backdrop was done, I draped the buffet with a white tablecloth and added movie theatre candy such as Whoppers, Snow Caps, Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, Good & Plenty, Goobers, Skittles and Milk Duds. This is the type of candy that I only eat when we’re at the movies and it is such a treat to have them at a party! In addition to the candy, I popped regular popcorn. But, for those who love gourmet popcorn, I got two types of flavored popcorn from Balducci’s: a white and dark chocolate swirl and a dark chocolate sea salt caramel. Just stringing those five words together makes me happy.

I bought popcorn bags at Party City and upcycled them with gold glitter to use as candy bags.

This gourmet popcorn from Balducci’s is sinful!

For the full effect, keep the house lights dimmed because it imparts a movie theatre feeling. The globe lights illuminated the gold letters and made it really festive. Lighting can completely transform a room and change the mood. Everything that was covered in gold glitter picked up the sparkly lights and made it look so pretty!