Forgot to mention - it was free to all parents (except for the book fair purchases), and it only costs about $175 to do,snacks and craft was only expense.
Also, you might check - since Reading is a Title 1 element, the school may be able to donate some title 1 monies to support the event.

Plus, we partnered with our family resource center, and the family literacy agency in our community. They volunteered with us to staff the event and brought some literature.

We just had our family reading night - and it was awesome!!

We held it on a night during our school book fair. We had book themed snacks (freckle juice and mouse cookies), played book bingo, had some local high school atheletes read during story hour, and had a craft table to make book marks. We did a book swap - bring an used book from home, get your hand stamped and then take a new-to-you book home. Everyone had a great time - had over 125 people! Order the PTO Today planning kit - it was a huge help!!

This year we are trying a free Winter Theme Reading Night. We are asking local business leaders to come in and read a book. We will be serving cookies and punch for no charge.

Movie night movies by the way, besides the new ones that everyone has seen. "The Iron Giant" "The Little Vampire" "The Greatest Game Ever Played" "The Thief Lord" "Newsies"

All of these are awesome shows and will open up your families to new titles to add to their library. They are top quality.

A family night is GAME NIGHT! It's awesome. We have a gaming store in town (who happens to be a family member in our school.) By making contact with them they bring in some games and we provide people to supervise stations. They also bring in a lot of their store leaders to run games and do demonstration games such as "Hero Clix" or other games like that. We stay away from the Yugio/Pokemon stuff.

Another great December event is Breakfast with Santa. It's a great event for the younger kids. Some bagels, juice, milk, fruit and a few craft activities and some little cutsie holiday movie and we are set. And don't forget Santa.

I just found out that the Pixar movie "Cars" is being released on November 6th. This would be an awesome movie night selection in November. As far as planning - get the license, distribute a flyer and hook up the LCD projector and speakers and you're done.

Now..if you want to provide refresments, you'll need volunteers to run the concession stand. This can be as easy as popcorn and sodas or a full menu with pizza and nachos and candy. OR if you want simple, tell everyone to bring their own snacks and open the doors.