Hold a Harry Potter Party
Harry Potter makes for the ideal party theme. It's got the food, the games, the entertainment and the costumes already clearly sorted out for you. Just follow this guide and your party should run smoothly, with all the guests having a great time!
Contents
Steps
Planning the Party
- Check with your parents that it's okay to have a party. They may love the idea, though - it'd be fun for everyone, plus you have a guide (this article) telling you everything you need to know.
- Make a guest list. Try to invite people who know a lot about Harry Potter.
- Make Harry Potter-themed invitations. Here are different ideas for making the invitations:
- Idea number 1: Invite friends to Hogwarts with an official looking invitation in a large, handmade envelope with red Use Sealing Wax with a Melting Pot. Write your invitation on white paper with green ink, stain with a cooled coffee or tea mixture (try staining your paper before you write on it, and dry it flat), and roll up when dry. Tie with red ribbon or seal with red wax. To make this look even fancier, get your parent to mark an H for Hogwarts.
- Idea number 2: Print some Hogwarts house ties and use them as invitations - or cut them out and send them as they are in a big envelope, with instructions for your party guests to color them in in their favorite house's colors and wear them to the party!
- Idea number 3: Put the Hogwarts crest/badge at the top of the page on the right-hand corner where the address goes on muggle letters. You can find this in images online if you type in "Hogwarts badge". Then type out your official invitation underneath.
- Idea number 4: Send your friends a letter, inviting them to Hogwarts, for an end of O.W.L. party. Instead of your friend's name, write the name of their favorite Hogwarts character (such as "Dear Luna"). Make sure you have an equal number of students from each House. Then, print of some pictures of owls and stick them on top.
- Add specifics to the invitation. Besides the date, place and time, here are some other things you might like to add:
- Dress up as your favorite Harry Potter character (Harry, Ginny, Ron etc).
- Ask your guests to bring their own wands.
- State that everyone gets 20 House points to start off with. Make sure all guests understand what House points actually are.
Setting Up for the Party
- Ensure that the place the party will be held is tidy, so that it is easily manageable.
- Make a map of your house. You may want to include your backyard or garden, too. Label the places differently.
- For example, your backyard or garden is the Hogwarts grounds or the black lake. This grabs people's interest, and you can play Find the Sorcerer's Stone, or something similar.
- Decorate your house. While you don't really need decorations to have a great Harry Potter party, if your party is themed on a particular part of Harry Potter, they can be useful for getting the mood right. Handmade posters, the "paintings" that hang up around Hogwarts and drapes in house colors are all possible ways to decorate for your Harry Potter party.
- Stick stars on the ceiling if it's okay with your parents, so that your room looks like the Great Hall.
- Make Harry Potter loot bags. These can be made as follows:
- Stuff inside the party bag: At the end of the party, have a hunt to see if kids can find the following objects. Whatever object that is on the list that they find, they get to take home. It may be a good idea to do this in the backyard. Here is a list of things you may want to use:
- 2 chocolate gold coins
- 2 Harry Potter collector cards
- 2 Harry Potter badges
- 1 toy mini dragon
- Organize music. Set up a music playing device and organize playlists. Play some different Hogwarts songs at the party to set the mood. Some good bands are Swish and Flick, Draco and the Malfoys and The Parselmouths.
Preparing Food for the Party
- Choose the party food. You can use anything referred to in the book series, as well as related food items that you think would have been appreciated in a Harry Potter context. Harry Potter party food is really easy to come up with. Just think of a food or drink you and your guests would like and come up with a creative Harry Potter name for it. Some suitable foods include:
- Make Treacle Tart. This has a Harry Potter feeling to it, as Hagrid serves it to Harry multiple times.
- Roast potatoes. Baked, fried, and mashed are okay too - they have these at the start-of-term feast.
- Pumpkin juice. You can use orange juice, or learn how to make pumpkin juice. This is a nice addition to any party.
- Chocolate frogs. Use chocolate in the shape of frogs. You can buy frog molds at cooking stores and online, or buy ready-made chocolate frogs from candy or sweet shops.
- Pudding. Luna Lovegood says that you cannot have a party without pudding. Well, your party wouldn't be a party without pudding, either!
- Butterbeer. There are loads of recipes, so look it up! Most people suggest microwaving a tiny bit of butter and some butterscotch syrup for a minute and then adding cream soda.
- Bertie Botts' every flavor beans. Jelly Belly beans come in almost every flavor and make a good substitute.
- Make party food. Here are some additional ideas for things you can make at home fairly easily:
- Strawberry acid pop drinks: All you need is strawberries and fizzy strawberry drink. Cut the strawberries up into little bits and tip into a glass, pour a reasonable amount of a fizzy strawberry drink into the glass and dilute. To make this into a dessert, simply add some strawberry ice cream.
- Spark wands: This is easy; all they are is bread sticks. The bread sticks are the wands, and if you want your"'wands" to shoot "sparks", then get ones with seeds on them.
- Crumpet faces: If you like crumpets and pizzas, you and your guests will be excited to get to one of these delicious morsels.
- Get two crumpets and cover with cheese, olive oil, tomatoes, and olives if you like them. Make into faces or throw on.
- Heat in your oven for about 10 minutes.
- Eat and enjoy!
When the Guests Arrive
- Consider having the Hogwarts Express. To get to it, you must run through a brick wall. To do this, place two curtains in your foyer with the words "Platform 9 and 3/4" pinned to it. Ask your guests to "run" through it. Next, have your living or family room look like a compartment. Get off the train to go to "Hogwarts."
- Sort the party guests. The Sorting is a celebrated feast at the beginning of a school year. The first years find what house they're in, and so can your guests!
- Find or buy a witch's hat, and dirty it up a little, so that it looks old.
- Place the "Sorting Hat" on a stool in the "Great Hall."
- Ask a family member to call out names. For example: "Weasley, Rose!"
- Have someone in the background shout out the house, depending on what the person's characteristics are (decide this in advance). Are they bold and brave? Gryffindor would be their house. If they're sharp with smarts, Ravenclaw is theirs. How about if they have a green thumb and a kind heart? Try Hufflepuff. If they're clever and proud, choose Slytherin. Remember, Slytherin isn't that bad of a house to be in!
Party Fun
- Use House points. If a guest does something really well, the party organizer (an adult) will award the relevant House 1, 5, 10, 20 or 50 house points. But beware! Each guest can lose House points, too! In each game mentioned below, there is a note of House points and how many a guest should get.
- An adult should be placed in charge of the House points. If you have a mom and a dad, try having your mom dress up as Minerva McGonagall and your dad as Snape! (Be prepared - they may have a few objections about this!)
- Hold a Great Feast. The "Great Feast" comes right after the Sorting. So can yours, or you can delay it until later in the party. Any dish will work, though for specifics, see the "Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook" and the suggested foods above.
- Have four tables, or only as many as you need for the Houses. Perhaps no Slytherin? No need to make a table then.
- Have someone be headmaster and say a few words before serving. Perfect.
- Add whatever you'd like to make the feast more fun.
- Make sure everyone is informed that good behavior earns points, and naughty behavior loses them.
- Give out schedules as well.
- Play Harry Potter games. Here are just a few ideas to inspire you:
- Astronomy: Print and cut out a picture of each of the planets. Each student at Hogwarts has ten minutes to find all the planets hidden around the house. Award ten House points to everyone who finds the planets, and take ten away from anyone who doesn't find them.
- Create your own spell: This game is bound to be a big hit. Before the party, find a Latin dictionary (online or a book) and compile a list of Latin nouns and verbs to give the "students", which they can combine into their own spells. Latin is the best language to use, because it is the one used in the Harry Potter books (e.g., the Lumos spell, which means light in Latin). Let them practice by having Wizard Duels with each other. Use glow sticks as wands, as they give off light.
- Race to dinner: This little game is good fun. Create a course around your house to get to your dinner. Everyone can shoot a spell, although all spells are restricted except Stunning spells and Disarming spells. If you are hit by a Stunning Spell, then you have to stay still for 5 seconds. If you are hit by a Disarming spell, you're not allowed to shoot a spell at anyone for 5 seconds. You're not allowed to shoot a spell unless you have counted two seconds from the last spell you shot. This is a bit complicated, so practice before dinner, or this could end in chaos! You may also want to check with a parent, since they may think you've gone mad if you want to race around the house with your friends waving sticks at each other, and you could knock over some valuables.
- Harry Potter board games: There are a lot of great Harry Potter games out there, so if you or any of your friends have any, make sure you include them in your party!
- Harry Potter make-a-food: Give all the guests a selection of the basic foods. All they are doing is picking a Harry Potter food each, or making one together, getting the food they will need, cooking it and finally tasting. You can get suggestions of Harry Potter foods if you can buy/read the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. You get five House points if Snape thinks it is yummy. But will it come out as sour? Sweet? Tasty? Yucky?
- Potions class: Get lots of fizzy drinks, sweets and berries. Split into pairs and take a "cauldron" (a large bowl or toy cauldron) for each pair. Now have fun mixing it all together. Make your dad/brother/uncle dress up as Snape and taste each pair's potion. His favorite potion is given ten House points, the second favorite gets five, and third is awarded three. (Specifics on potions are offered below.)
- Crosswords: There are thousands of Harry Potter Crosswords on the net, but making your own is much more fun. If you find this too hard, just make a word search instead. Guests will then find a partner and they will swap crosswords and try to figure them out. The crosswords should be Harry Potter-related.
- Read Aloud your favorite lines out of your favorite Harry Potter books. It's actually really fun! But don't stay inside while you're doing this if it's a nice day, or your dad might think you're up to something.
- Care Of Magical Creatures: Using "Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them", each draw up a bingo grid. Write down a magical creature in each slot. Now ask an adult to flick through and call out random names. First one to get every creature called wins. Instead of shouting bingo, shout "Hagrid!".
- Play Quidditch! Have your guest bring a broom, (or you will have the brooms)and play Quidditch outside. Remember, there are two beaters, one seeker, a keeper, and three chasers. On the web, you can find plenty of variations of Quidditch. Try Mugglenet's official college Quodpot.
- Have a scavenger hunt. The Marauders' Map can be your guide!
- Provide quiet time. Everybody needs a quiet time after all the fun stuff, and this is perfect. Don't worry, it won't be boring - you'll be watching a Harry Potter Video/DVD. If you have multiple movies, do a vote.
- Make spells and potions.
- For spells, start with Wingardium Leviosa. Use wands and balloons. Last one's balloon to drop wins 10 points for their House. First one loses 5 points. Next, transfigure buttons into bobby pins. Have the "students" close their eyes. Make up a spell for them to say and switch them. Hide the buttons. If they can transfigure them, 5 points.
- Potions. No foolish wand-waving. So, wands away please. Make five types of potion: Felix Felicis, Babbling potion, Truth potion, Silence potion and Polyjuice potion.
- For Felix: pour four drops of yellow food coloring in a cup with ice. Then, add Sprite. Tada! You're lucky.
- For Babbling: pour four drops of blue food coloring in a cup with ice. Then, add Sprite. Now you can't stop talking!
- For Truth, pour only Sprite. Have someone ask you a question, and you can't lie.
- For Silence: pour four drops of red food coloring in a cup with ice. Add Sprite. Take a sip and zip!
- For Polyjuice, follow the steps for Silence, but with green food coloring.
- Hold a Tri-Wizard Tournament. If you have a pool, you can put obstacles and challenges in there. For the dragons, you could have them chase dogs with something on them that they have to get off, or for the maze, you could get some tall inflatable walls and put them in your backyard.
- Do a calmed down version of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Sleepover
- Have additional preparations if you're also holding a Harry Potter sleepover party. Here are some things to consider:
- Bedtime: Make a dormitory out of your bedroom. Deck in Gryffindor colors (red and gold), tidy up and put some beds/sleeping bags on the floor. You could divide up the sleeping room for the four houses. Also, have a picture that you need to have a password to.
- Breakfast: Usually at a sleepover you will all have breakfast together. Think up something Harry Potter-ish for breakfast. Dress your breakfast place like Dumbledore's office and have some nice crumpets with butter while having an enjoyable talk with your dad (Dumbledore) about favorite Quidditch teams.
Printable Party Invitations
Doc:Harry Potter Birthday,Harry Potter Party
Printable Labels
Doc:Harry Potter Labels
Tips
- If you have a CD player, play the Hogwarts theme tune in the hallway while the guests/students come in.
- Harry Potter Trivia is an awesome way to earn house points and is a fun game.
- Make Hogwarts Letters with paper stained with cooled coffee, write in green ink, and seal a fancy stained envelope with red wax. You can even listen to Harry Potter music whilst you make letters.
- Why not have the Yule Ball? Ask your guests to bring in gorgeous clothes, do each other's make-up (if you are girls), turn up the music, and dance the night away. Play a mix of fast (dance) songs, slow songs, and Hogwarts themed songs to have an amazing Yule Ball.
- Make everyone a tie for the different houses and buy or make a witch or wizard hat.
- Use the Hogwarts logo as an image. Just type in Hogwarts Logo into a search engine.
- Watch Potter Puppet Pals and the mysterious ticking noise for ideas, then put on a puppet show.
- Play another Duel where you draw cards from a deck, and each card has a spell or a DEAD sign on it. Whichever spell wins gets their card and the other card. At the end, whoever has the most cards wins.
- Try making wands for you and the guests at the party.
- For the sorting, you can sit the person down with a device like a laptop, computer or phone, and if they have an e-mail, use Pottermore (the most correct test, JK Rowling made it) or if they don't have an e-mail, just search up 'Which Hogwarts House am I in?' or something like that, and try a fan-made test.
Warnings
- Be warned, there may be Harry Potter fans who object to the party/sleepover! If you plan on a Gryffindor theme with red and gold patterns and Harry Potter posters everywhere, the Slytherins, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs will have something to say about that! To avoid conflict, make the main room you use have different sections where the different students can group. If you are having a sleepover, make sections where all the different houses can sleep/place belongings/group together.
- Don't use anything dangerous. The worst thing that could happen is children going home hurt or injured.
- In outside Quidditch, make sure the beaters don't hit hard! Just a tap and the player will drop the ball! (Quaffle)
- For wizards who refuse to leave the party, threaten them with dangerous spells. They won't call your bluff, because it's a Harry Potter party. If you don't know any spells, just type in something like "bad harry potter spells" into Google.
- If you use Pottermore for the sorting, remember that the test goes for a while.
Things You'll Need
- Party Bags. Make your own Harry Potter themed ones!
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