Movie night is something I do routinely with my siblings. Sometimes we invite friends, but it’s really a time we set aside for each other once a month. While we all live and work in the same city, we live at opposite ends and getting together can be a challenge with our current schedules.

It’s something we started doing in our early twenties. At the time my eldest sibling and I had just graduated, but my youngest brother was still in university. I’d just started my career, while my older brother was about a year into his. We were all doing our best to get ahead and were seeing each other less and less. We all kept trying to make plans but they’d always seem to fall apart at the last minute for one reason or another.

I think it was my idea because I was missing them both quite a lot. I wanted to do something really casual with them so we could let our hair down and relax. Going to a restaurant seemed to be too much work, as anywhere decent requires a reservation and research, and hanging out at a bar wasn’t likely to work out because they can be really noisy environments. The idea came to me in the shower one day, and it felt like a lightbulb switched on in my head.

On my way to work, I messaged them both and suggested the idea of getting together every few weeks. We could pick a movie or something from Netflix, order a pizza or two, and microwave a few bags of popcorn. It wouldn’t require any work and we’d set aside a few hours on a Sunday evening once a month. They loved it!

We’ve been doing it for the last few years and it’s been working perfectly. Aside from one family emergency, we’ve been pretty consistent and haven’t skipped a movie night yet.

I think I’m pretty lucky that my siblings live in the same city. I think it would be so much harder if we all lived in different parts of the country, or even different countries, but for as long as we all live nearby, movie night will survive.