Popcorn Bar Ideas to Celebrate National Popcorn Month!

October is National Popcorn Month! Popcorn is a favorite snack and party food, so it’s really easy to find ways to celebrate with popcorn this month (or any month!). Whether you want a fun party theme or family movie night snack, here’s some popcorn bar ideas for to celebrate National Popcorn Month!

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Popcorn for your Party!

How do you like your popcorn? Air popped? Microwave popped? Already popped in a bag?! I’ve got you covered on all points!

Star Wars Popcorn Makers!

Since we’re all awaiting the release of the next Star Wars movie (wait, you’re not!?), we might as well spend our time planning out the snacks, right? What better way to do that than with some awesome Star Wars themed air popper machines!? After all, the Force isn’t going to pop your popcorn for ya! The R2-D2 popcorn maker is DEFINITELY the “droid you are looking for” when it comes to popping up a snack for movie night (and don’t worry, he’ll even pop some for non-Star Wars saga movies if you ask nicely). Don’t expect much by way of movie discussion from him though. Or… if the Dark Side is more your thing… go for the Death Star popcorn maker. The top half of this popper detaches to become your snack bowl! These Star Wars poppers use only hot air (not hot oil!) to create light and fluffy popcorn even a Wookie would love! And, they are officially licensed Star Wars merchandise too!

Find Star Wars popcorn makers at ThinkGeek.com (you wouldn’t expect them from anyone else, would you?). ARV $49.99 (but there’s a sale on R2-D2 right now!)

Obsessively Delicious Popcorn from the Original Popcorn Machine Inventor!

Did you know popcorn became a mainstream snack before the first Coca-Cola was served, and before the first automobile was revealed, and even before the United States had the Statue of Liberty installed!? Yes! And the folks at G. H. Cretors have continued the tradition of amazing popcorn for the past 132 years, with their great-great-grandaughter still making popcorn. Now they have six amazing flavors that are, as they say, “Obsessively Delicious!” (Truth!).

Their non-GMO popcorn is all 100% gluten free and sweetened with brown rice syrup, not corn syrup. And the unique flavors of G. H. Cretor popcorn will blow your mind! The do have your classic favorites like Organic EVOO with Sea Salt and Just the Cheese with aged cheddar cheese. But then the flavors get wild! Like Just the Caramel Corn handcrafted in copper kettles for a crunchy and creamy popcorn snack! To top that, they created The Mix! The Mix blends their caramel corn and cheese popcorn together for a sweet and salty burst of “oh my goodness that’s good!”

Finally, two zingy flavors: Organic Chili Jalepeno White Cheddar with real chile peppers and bits of peppers for extra spicy snack lovers. And the Organic Dill Pickle is a tangy snack with real dill weed and sea salt! You will find a favorite and will NOT want to put the bag down!

Find G. H. Cretors popcorn online, buy G. H. Cretors popcorn on Amazon, or in local stores like Walgreens and Target (and others!)

Farm to Bag Microwave Popcorn

I had about given up on microwave popcorn. The microwave not being my favorite appliance anyway, but then all the gunk in those packages? But Quinn Popcorn has “reimagined snacks” by asking important questions. Like “does all that have to be in there?” and “what if we partnered with farmers?” So they didn’t, and they did.

They took out all the yucky stuff from microwaved popcorn and created a real paper compostable bag (no coated lining!) that pops only the kernels. After the corn is popped, you add the sunflower oil (no hydrogenated oils!), and shake-shake-shake! Then, you top the lightly oiled popcorn with the seasoning packet and shake-shake-shake!

Their non-GMO, organic popping corn come from farms you can track on their website. So you know exactly where YOUR bag of popcorn came from! Quinn uses only real, simple ingredients in their seasoning packets. PLUS check out the range of flavors in their microwaved popcorns: Parmesan Rosemary, Vermont Maple Kettle Corn, White Cheddar, and Real Butter & Sea Salt! Yummy!

And you know what? It’s really FUN to mix in the packets yourself and make a truly fresh bag of popcorn!

Find Quinn Popcorn online – you’ll see they make several other yummy popcorn and snack items too! Buy Quinn Popcorn on Amazon or local stores

Popcorn Games & Ideas for your Party!

A Popcorn Counting Game for the Littles

Young kids will get a kick out of this hands-on popcorn counting game. Smart Snacks® Count’em Up Popcorn by Learning Resources lets kids learn while playing with our favorite snack! The striped popcorn bowls have numbers on the sides for kids to fill each bowl with the matching number of tactile popcorn pieces! Fifteen pieces of popcorn fill up the bowls and little ones will enjoy handling the fun-shaped game pieces while they practice counting in sets. They’ll also learn number recognition and one-to-one correspondence. The bowls next, so they are easy to store.

Find this game on LearningResources.com or get this popcorn counting game on Amazon. 

Check out this fun “pick up the popcorn” game from Highlights Magazine. It’s not real popcorn, but still looks fun!

And then these six popcorn games (with real popcorn) to use up leftover popcorn!

Ideas for your Popcorn Bar

Make some flavored salts so guests can sprinkle their own seasonings on your air popped popcorn! This recipe list will be enough to keep you busy for awhile!

Set out some small candies, nuts, and other toppings as “mix-ins” for the popcorn!

Instead of loose popcorn, make popcorn balls! Here’s a GREAT recipe the grown-ups will love: Maple Bacon Popcorn Balls from Brett at ThisMamaLoves.com

Let kids decorate paper bags to fill up with popcorn. Then they can add the toppings and shake it all together!

Put popcorn mixes into “frappaccino” cups with dome covers for guests to travel home with!

Creating a popcorn bar for your next party or movie night can be as easy or elaborate as you want! There are so many options to have fun with popcorn this month!

What’s your favorite way to enjoy popcorn!? 

Thanks to the brands mentioned for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own. Purchases made through affiliate links in this post may generate a small commission for me.