Harry Potter Party Ideas | Harry Potter Theme

Harry Potter Theme Parties are one of the popular themes around for birthdays and Halloween.  The books by J.K. Rowling is a series of seven fantasy novels that has inspired children of all ages to read and to fantasize what it may be like in the wizarding world.  Harry Potter Party Supplies

Harry Potter Party Plan

• Harry Potter Party Invitations
• Harry Potter Party Party Decor
• Harry Potter Party Crafts
• Harry Potter Party Recipes
• Harry Potter Party Cakes
• Harry Potter Party Games
• Harry Potter Party Favors

Harry Potter Party Supplies

Harry Potter Party Invitations

• Harry Potter Party Invitations.
• Acceptance Letter By Professor McGonagall. An acceptance letter by Professor McGonagall was created as the invitation to the Harry Potter party.  In the letter, the professor welcomed the kids back to school and guests were told to wear wizard attire to the party ( the party area would be well-protected by Memory Charms ).  Create your own tea stained paper by using quality paper.  When the paper is dry and ready, print out the invitation on a printer with the Hogwarts Crest on top to look like official letterhead.
• Harry Potter Pre-printed Invitation. Use pre-printed invitations for a quick and easy option for your Harry Potter party.  Just fill in the details on the inside or let your child fill it in if they are old enough.
• Harry Potter Glasses and Bolt Tattoo. Attach a simple card to a pair of Harry Potter glasses with the party details as an invitation.  Throw in a lightning bolt tattoo and tell guests to come with the glasses and bolt on their forehead to the party.
• Authentic Wax Seal. Seal your envelope with a “wax seal” that is created by dripping hot wax onto the envelope and using a stamp, perhaps with the letter of the “Guest of Honor”, to create an imprint like the Olden days.
• Most Wanted Fugitive. Make a newspaper invitation with the picture of the Guest of Honor being the “Most Wanted” fugitive, just like when Sirius Black escaped from the Prison of Azkaban (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).

Harry Potter Party Supplies

Harry Potter Party Decorations

Decorate the party room and area like Diagon Alley and Hogwarts.  We used the garage to set up little sections for each shop and the dining room indoors as Hogwarts’ banquet feast.  The walls of the garage were covered with stone wall gossamer to create the old world look.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – Party Decor

• Hogwarts Banner. Get a Hogwarts Banner to hang in the party room to make it look like the long banquets table at Hogwarts.
• Old World Decor. Go to rummage sales, antique places, grandma’s attic, Ebay , etc. to try to get as many antiques, old furniture, mirrors, candlelabras, etc. you can find. Use it in your party decorations, party room and party table.
• Fancy Feast. Set the table in an elaborate feast with themed snacks, cakes and desserts.  Lots of candelabras, bowls with fresh fruit, chocolate frogs, breads, and goblets.

Madame Malkin’s Robe Shop – Party Decor

• Coat Rack or Wardrobe. Get a coat rack or an old wardrobe and hang black robes for each student.  Get either the official Harry Potter robes, make your own, or get extra large men’s black t-shirts and cut a slit down the middle so kids can wear as a robe.  Wrap the robe with fabric roping or pin closed using safety pins.
• Dusty Mirror. Put up a mirror with cobwebs in an area  with other appropriate decorations for a dress shop.

Ollivander’s Wand Shop – Party Decor

• Wand Power. Collect as many branches from various trees, bushes and shrubs you can find.  Put them in a pile and a few in a pot or vase.  To make it more interesting label the origin of the branches like, willow, oak, maple, etc.
• Wand Display. Set up a fancy pillow and place a wand on it and label it as e.g. Harry Potter’s wand, Dumbledore’s or Tom Riddle’s wand as a special item in your wand store.  In our Wand shop, we had Harry Potter’s, Ron’s, Hermione’s and Hagrid’s wand on display.

Flourish and Blotts Book Shop – Party Decor

• Shelves with Books. Get lots of old books and stack shelves with them.  Check your local library, thrift stores or Salvation army for old books they no longer need and they will often give them away for free.
• Harry Potter Books. Use any or all of the 7 Harry Potter books as part of the collection for the store.
• Make Your Own Book Cover. Make your own book cover for books that are found in the stories and movies, like:

1. “Care of Magical Creatures” – used by Hagrid for class.  (Add in teeth and belt buckle)
2. “Tom Riddle’s Diary” – diary of Tom Riddle (Voldemort). (Bind blank parchment paper together to look like a diary, but leave it blank.  Use invisible ink to write in “Happy Birthday _____, from Voldemort” and reveal the writing at some point during the party).
3. “Half-Blood Prince’s Potions Book” – book with potions, spells and recipe notes by Snape (get an old book and write in potion recipes by hand).

Gringotts Wizarding Bank – Party Decor

• Galleons, Sickle and Knuts. Get Gold coins for Galleons, Silver coins for Sickles and Bronze coins for Knuts.  Fill bags with the coins and scatter them around the bank as well.
• Old Safe. If you can get a hold of an old safe, use it as a prop for the Gringott’s bank.  Put lots of spider webs around it to make it look authentic.
• Goblin Guard. Try to get an adult or teenager to wear a goblin or Dobby suit to play goblin and security guard.
• Silver Engravings. Make a plaque by painting a piece of wood silver and write these words engraved on it and post it on the door:

Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.

Professor Snape’s Potions Class – Party Decor

• Test tubes, Flasks and Potions. Get trays of test tubes, flasks, old bottles, old wine bottles, etc. and fill with colored water and liquids.  Add in lots of spider webs to make the lab look old and part of the school room.
• Grow Your Own Body Parts. Get “Grow-Your-Own” items like brain, feet, fingers, eyes, etc. from joke shop that will expand and grow when immersed in water.  Put into a glass or plastic jar and label with gross names like “Voldemort’s Brain”, “Hippogriff spit”, etc.  Add in a few drops of red food coloring or red jello to make the liquid turn red and look like blood.

Herbology Class – Party Decor

• Plants, plants, plants. Gather as many plants you can find around the house and put them in one area for the Herbology class.  Old pots, potting soil, trowels, etc. can be used as props.
• Venus Fly Trap Feeding. Get a few Venus fly trap plants and have guests try to feed it some live bugs or flies.
• Suprise Plants. Give guests a small pot, potting soil and an array of seeds.  Let them plant the seed and be suprised a few weeks later to see what kind of seeds they ended up with.  Tell them it’s a rare kind of bean stalk or some made up plant name in Latin.

Honeyduke Sweet Shop – Party Decor

• Old Candy Jars. Fill old fashioned candy jars with all kinds of sweets and goodies.
• Wizarding Treats. Get assorted candies and chocolates and label them like Chocolate Frogs, Bertie’s Botts Beans, and Fudge Flies.  Fudge flies are magical chocolate nuggets in the shapes of flies! Each miniature fly is packed with yummy fudge filling. These sweet insects will cast a spell on your taste buds!
• Delicious Delicatessen. Make your own delicious desserts, cakes and snack items to go with the Harry Potter theme party.

Eeylops Owl Emporium – Party Decor

• Hoot Hoots. Get different stuffed animal owls and display them in the store everywhere.  Some types of owls that the Emporium could have are Screech Owl, Snowy Owl, Barn Owl and The Brown Owl.  Use the owls as decorations or let guests pick one as their pet for during the party.

Harry Potter Party Supplies

Harry Potter Guest Arrival and Introduction

• Harry Potter Soundtrack. Play the official Harry Potter soundtrack when guests arrive.
• Brick Wall at Hogwarts Express. Create a brick wall out of fabric by painting bricks on a red brown fabric (if you can fabric that already has the brick pattern on it would be easier).  Cut the fabric into strips to create a fringe entrance.  Set up in front of the door way or garage door so guest would have to “walk through” the brick wall like in the movie on Platform 9 3/4 at the Hogwarts Express.
• Sorting Hat Ceremony and House assignment. Get a sorting hat, or make one using brown felt and a cone party hat.  Place a cell phone underneath and set it on speaker phone.  Sort the boys according to the four different houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Ravenclaw.  Once each has been assigned, give them a robe from Madame Maulkin’s Robe Shop.  Enter the robe shop, give them a black robe and pin on the appropriate crest.
• Wand Selection. Next up, go to Olivander’s Wand Shop and have them select an appropriate wand that fit their personality and wizard strength.  Before the party, collect different sticks from the garden from different trees and branches.  Label the branches and sticks names like Rosewood, Vinewood, Weeping Willow and Rather Bendy.

Harry Potter Party Supplies

Harry Potter Party Crafts and Activities

• Cauldron Slime. Give all guests a small mini cauldron and make slime as part of Severus Snape’s Potion Class.  Don’t forget to give them a list of spells to chant out during the stirring process.

“Alohamora” – Spell used to unlock doors.

“Aparecium” – Spell makes invisible ink appear.

“Avada Kedavra” – Killing Curse.  Will kill the person you cast this spell upon.  Snape used this to kill Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince“.

“Evanesco” – Vanishing Spell, makes things dissappear.

• Potions Class. Give each guest a tray of test tubes with various liquids, colored drinks and label the bottles like “Hippogriff spit”, “Unicorn extract”, “Dragon Blood”, “Pixie Dust”, etc.  Let them mix drinks in the test tubes, and drink them.
• Grow Your Own Body Parts. Give each guest a jar and growable body parts.  Fill with water and watch it grow.
• Make Bubble Gum. Get a Bubble Gum Kit and make bubble gum.
• Let it snow. Making snow using snow polymer and water.
• Science Experiments. More science experiments here for Snape’s Potions Class.
• Care of Magical Creatures. Consider hiring a local animal expert and have them bring in exotic animals and insects, like Tarantulas, Iguanas, Boas, etc.

Harry Potter Party Supplies

Harry Potter Party Recipes

• Dementor Finger Cookies. Make sugar cookies in the shape of fingers, use almond slivers as nails.  Complete Dementor Finger Cookies instructions here. Decorate with eyeball gummy candy on the side.
• Chocolate Frogs. Make Chocolate frogs using a frog mold and chocolate wafers.
• Magic Wand Pretzel Sticks. Serve Magic Wand Pretzel sticks or let kids make their own.
• Boney Bread Buns. Make bread dough in the shape of skeletons and bones. Easy skeleton bone recipe.
• Hotdog Mummy Wrap. Wrap hotdogs in dough for a quick mummy wrap and a kid-friendly snack.
• Butter Beer. Make delicious butter beer to quench the thirst of the Hogwart’s students and teachers.
• Golden Dragon Eggs. Make deviled eggs and pretend they are golden dragon eggs from the Triwizard Tournament (Goblet of Fire).
• Hagrid’s Pumpkin Muffin. These pumpkin muffins have been mended by Madam Pomfrey and are the opposite of Hagrid’s usual muffins — they are soft, sweet, moist and delicious!
• Pumpkin Juice. Another favorite drink for feasts at Hogwarts. Mix orange soda with ginger ale.  Serve in a cauldron.
• Firewhiskey. Not meant to be served to under aged wizards, though Ron has occasionally snuck a few snips.  The Weasley family, Harry, Hermione, and some members of the Order of the Phoenix drank Firewhisky in the seventh book in honor of Mad-Eye Moody.  Add a few drops of Tabasco hot sauce to your favorite whiskey.  Serve in old bottles.

Harry Potter Party Supplies

Harry Potter Birthday Party Cakes and Desserts

• Slithering Basilisk. Serve gummy worms as dessert (The snake or basilisk appeared in The Chamber of Secrets).
• Harry Potter Cake with Hogwarts, Basilisk and Dementor. Make a Hogwarts Castle Cake and create a giant Basilisk Snake out of sugar paste fondant on the outside, with a hovering dementor.
• Mad Eye Moody Cupcake. Make cupcakes with eye balls in honor of Alastor “Mad Eye” Moody the famous Auror.  He has lost his left eye, right leg, and part of his nose when he was fighting off the Dark wizards.
• Goblet of Fire Graveyard Cupcakes. These graveyard cupcakes are perfect for the dual between Harry Potter and Voldemort in the Goblet of Fire, the fourth book.
• Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans. Jelly beans from Honey Dukes Sweet Shop in all delicious flavors.
• Blood Lollipops.
• Mad Eye Moody Eye Balls. Gummy candy in the shape of eyeballs.
• Chocolate Frogs. Always a favorite pick-me-up after a dementor scare.  Pre-made Chocolate frogs or make your own.
• Licorice Wands. Serve sticks of licorice as magic wands.
• Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum. Blowing gum that is great as a Harry Potter Party Favor, to fill candy jar in your Honey Duke Sweet Shop, or as a party sweet.
• Fudge Flies. Chocolate shaped in the form of icky flies.
• Chocolate Eye Balls. Chocolate Malt Balls with dab of white icing and small dot of chocolate chip.
• Tooth Flossing String Mints. Use Rainbow colored string licorice as the Tooth Flossing String Mints.
• Goose Droppings. Use Hershey kisses or small Hershey semi-sweet chocolate chips as goose droppings.
• Cockroach Clusters. For this use Turtle Chocolates and label them “Cockroach Clusters” using the Harry Potter Font.
• Acid Pops. Pop rock Candy makes great acid pops.

Harry Potter Party Supplies

Harry Potter Party Games

• Game of Snitch. Play a game of snitch.  Get some inexpensive brooms from craft stores (after Halloween) and print out name labels for them.  Examples, Firebolt, Nimbus 1000, Nimbus 2000, Nimbus 2001, Comet, and Clean Sweep Five.  Play the game similar to the quiddithch game or according to games that are more familiar to the guests, like soccer and hockey.  Use a small ball like tennis ball with wings attached.
• Decipher the Marauders Map. Make a map like the Marauders Map using invisible ink.  Lead the clues to the hidden treasure, preferably somewhere in the Gringott’s Bank (if you have one set up).  Put in several Portkeys (Long Play Tubes or Tunnels) on the map and when guests find them, throw some Floo powder (sparkle confetti) on them and then let them be “transported” to a new location.  If the guests do not find the Portkeys, they will have to go through the entire scavenger hunt with no short cuts.
• Sorting Hat Ceremony. Sort the kids into the 4 different houses during when guests arrive (see above).
• Potions Class. Conduct science experiments and make toxic concoctions to drink in Snape’s Potions Class (see above).
• Petrified Tag. Like freeze tag.  One kid gets to be the dementor and he or she gets to petrify the others when they are touched.  If you have a laser light or laser pointer (use caution), you can tag them with the light (like a wand).  Once they are tagged they turn to stone are then petrified, thus out.
• Stomp the Dementors. Get 10 black balloons and fill them half with regular air.  When they are almost full, fill with just a little bit of helium so that the balloons will just hover a little above ground when they are tied. Drape a small shredded black napkin over each balloon and make these your dementors.  Divide the guests into 2 teams and see which team can stomp out the balloon dementors in the shortest amount of time.  Let one team go first, time them.  Then do the same with the second team.
• Triwizard Tournament. If you have enough guests, you can divide them into 3 different schools (Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons) otherwise, let the kids pick their school of choice. Get a zip line and attach it to two sturdy structures outdoors.  Make a broomstick using a swim foam noodle and a mop attached to one end.  The soft broom stick is for safety reasons just in case kids fall off.  Set up 5 challenges, one at a time, for each person going down the line to accomplish.  Let kids work on one challenge first, then move on to the next once all kids have gone down the zip line.  The one who accomplishes all, gets a prize.  Examples of challenges: Challenge 1 -  Firebolt Sweep. Place the Firebolt broom in the middle of the zip line course and kids need to pick up the broom as the zip from one end to the next.  Challenge 2 – Dragon Egg Transport. Give each one a spoon and an egg (paint the egg gold color like a Dragon egg), and they need to zip from one end to the other without breaking it.  Challenge 3 – Hedwig Owl. Transport Hedwig on their arm without falling off.  Challenge 4 – Dementor Catch. Give them a net and they must catch one floating balloon dementor (see “Stomp the Dementor game” above for dementor balloons). Challenge 5 – Lake Rescue. Put a small wading pool filled with water and sink in several plastic dolls.  One is designated as “Ron” who they need to save (Goblet of Fire).

Harry Potter Party Supplies

Harry Potter Party Favors

• Gringotts Bank Favor Bag. Make a Gringotts Bank favor bag and let kids go with their hard earned Galleons to the Hogsmeade store and shop for their favorite gifts and trinkets.  Set up a store like Hogsmeade and have a table with various treats, toys and favors. A play cash registers makes it fun and like a store.  Put up price tags, displays, shelving, etc. to make it more authentic.
• Favor Boxes by Celebrate Express. This adorable Harry Potter favor box comes with a Harry Potter sticker sheet, assorted glow stick, wizard glasses, lightning bolt tattoo and an owl bean bag. An easy option and quick party favor option.
• Bag of Bertie’s Beans. A bag of Bertie’s Flavorful Jelly Beans are always a hit as party favor for all ages.
• Cauldron Gold. Fill a cauldron with chocolate coins to give out to guests as they leave.
• O.W.L.S Diploma. Give out O.W.L.S Diplomas when guest leave and congratulate them for completing a successful year.
• Owl Messengers. Put up a pulley string from one end of the room to the other.  When parents arrive to pick up their kids, they have to send a message via Owl to let the hostess know that their kids are ready to be picked up.

Harry Potter Party Supplies