Disney Planes to the Rescue – DIY Runway Tutorial

Christmas is nearly here! Are you done shopping? It seems like I always need a few extra gifts in the last few days before Christmas. Luckily, Walmart has Disney Planes toys on Rollback right now! Disney #PlanesToTheRescue! (And thanks for #CollectiveBias for this opportunity!)

The prices of these Disney Planes toys have been rolled back to a lower price at Walmart right now:

• Disney Planes Flight to the Finish Speedway – Rollback to $24.97
• Disney Planes Fire & Rescue Die-Cast Vehicles, 3-Pack – Rollback to $14.97
• Disney Planes Fire & Rescue Deluxe Talking Vehicle Assortment – Rollback to $19.97
• Planes Character Assortment die-cast set – Rollback to $4.97
• Disney Planes: Fire and Rescue Character Assortment die-cast set – Rollback to $4.97

Train tables seem to be a popular gift for young kids for Christmas every year; I thought an airplane runway might be an equally fun alternative, and it’s easy and inexpensive to make!

I visited my local Walmart to pick up a few Disney Planes toys for my special project. They were really easy to find in the toy department with toys from the Cars movies nearby.

I chose some really fun looking toys and headed home to start my project. (Please note: not all the toys I purchased were on Rollback. See above for a list of Rollback items.) I was really excited to create a runway for the kids, but when I got home with the Disney Planes toys, John (my husband), was even more excited. In fact, he took all my supplies and decided to help me out and create the runway!

I knew I wanted a black runway with lights, just like real airports have. Of course, Christmas lights seemed like the perfect choice! I was able to pick up some supplies at Walmart and we had lots of what we needed on hand already. We used two pieces of black foam board (one is cut into strips below), a ruler, small screwdriver, pencil, masking tape, glue, a large roll of paper, a box cutter (although you could use scissors instead), and a string of Christmas lights.

First, John decided how wide he wanted the runway to be and marked it on the black foam board. Then, he measured the distance between the lights on the string of lights and marked it on the board along edge of the runway on either side. Foam board is thick, but easy to puncture, so John used a small screwdriver to poke the holes through. Then, he poked a pencil through each hole to make it larger.

Because the string from the lights was going to be under our runway, the runway needed to be a little elevated. John stacked the strips of foam board in two piles and glued them together; then he glue each stack to either side of the bottom of our large foam board. These act as legs for the runway to stand on.

Finally, I wanted the kids to be able to decorate the runway too, so John measured some paper off the roll and placed it on the edge, just alongside the holes.

Now that the runway was constructed, we taped the string of lights to the bottom. (Oops! Our measurements were off a bit – the holes were too far apart – so we had to put only every other light in the holes. Luckily, no one will be able to tell from the top!)

John poked a light into each of the holes to create the edges of our runway.

As final touches, John used some masking tape the make the dotted line down the center of the runway, and Cooper and Dexter drew some grass, buildings, and other things they wanted to be next to the runway.

It’s complete! Here’s our finished runway. We have buildings and a park on one side of the runway, and the other side has room for the airplanes to park and the flight school.

All three boys were excited to play with the planes and the runway.

Dusty, El Chupacabra, Rochelle, and LJH 86 Special have been flying in and our of our airport all day!

If you want to really surprise your kids on Christmas morning, this is a great project. It’s so fast and easy you can start and finish it the night before, and leave it for them under the tree with some Disney Planes toys.

Will Disney Planes toys be part of your Christmas this year?