Harry Potter Party

Whether you are celebrating your child's birthday, the birthday of the boy wizard himself (July 31) or maybe the release of the latest Harry Potter book (I can't believe they're all done!) or movie, there are all kinds of reasons to have a Harry Potter party!

There are so many great 'props' available for a Harry Potter party, kids of all ages (even us big people) can't help but have fun with it!

Invitations
Decorations
Tableware
Food & Snacks
Birthday Cakes
Games & Activities
Party Favors

Harry Potter Party Invitations

There are a lot of fun ways to create your own clever invitations for a Harry Potter party. Pick up some parchment paper, available at your local office supply store to give your invitations an authentic Hogwarts look.

For the invitation wording, look to the first Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) to see Harry's first letter from Hogwarts. It was written in green ink with a purple wax seal on the outside. Want to see a sample invitation based on this letter?

See the actual invitation
See the printed text

If you want a wax seal on your invitations, I recommend Mini Glue Gun Sealing Wax. It works like wax, but you put it in your mini glue gun. This means there is no smoke or flame, and it is softer than traditional wax, so it goes through the mail better.

For the seal itself, you can get a monogrammed 'H' (or any other letter!). If you'd rather customize one of your own, you can make one out of Sculpey. The Hogwarts crest with an 'H' in the middle isn't hard to do - just remember to create it backwards so it stamps properly! Be sure to chill the seal before you use it - you can set it on top of ice to keep it chilled while you work. The Sealing Wax sets up better that way.

Want to include a map to the party location? Try printing an internet map on parchment paper and cut it into a small square (this way you can get four to a page). You can add the following words at the top:

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
The Marauder's Map

That comes from book 3, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

You can also add this to your map:

Look for Platform 9 3/4 to get to Hogwarts!

Platform 9 3/4 is where the magical kids catch the train to Hogwarts. Put helium balloons on the mailbox or somewhere outside your house, and write 9 3/4 on them to make it easier for parents to find the house.

If you are hand-delivering invitations, you could roll them up like a scroll and tie them with a ribbon. If you are mailing them, you can get parchment paper envelopes. Try printing them on a computer with green ink. Underneath the child's name, add:

The Cupboard Under the Stairs

above the address. (This is how Harry's first letter was addressed) Since they can't come by owl post, try printing a picture of an owl on the outside.

See an example of an envelope with an owl holding a scroll

Harry Potter Birthday Party Decorations

When it comes to decorations for a Harry Potter party, I say go Hogwarts! You can turn your home into a castle, and it's easier than you may think.

At the top of this page their is a picture of a boy standing in front of a 'castle' wall. That wall is made of paper, which you can purchase. It comes in large rolls, and is very affordable - you could easily do an entire room with it. You can also get the flagstone pattern in corrugated paper - great for making 3D structures - or gossamer which you can reuse. This is available at BirthdayZ by ShindigZ - Click the link then search for: flagstone. Choose either gossamer or paper.

Behind the boy is the Hogwarts crest. That was made on poster board (the kind with the grid, which is very helpful for non-artistic types), and painted.

How about a Fat Lady? In the books, Harry belongs to Gryffindor House at Hogwarts. The Gryffindor students walk through a portrait of a Fat Lady to get into their dormitory. You can look for an old picture at a flea market - something antique looking - or if you have some artistic ability (or know someone who does!) sketch one up and hang it on a door.

When you use these kinds of props, you create the perfect opportunity for a photo. Snap a picture of each partygoer in front of your fabulous backdrop, and send it to them with your thank you note. Photos make a great souvenir from an unforgettable party!

Harry Potter Party Theme Tableware

You can get Harry Potter plates, cups and napkins online from Birthdayz by Shindigz, or choose solid gold colored plates just like they use at Hogwarts. For cups, kids love drinking from plastic goblets. You can generally purchase them inexpensively at party supply stores.

Harry Potter Party Food & Snacks

Pretzel Wands

Dip long pretzel sticks into frosting, then roll them in the sprinkles of your choice. Put them in a cup to serve.

Cauldron Punch

Mixing Kool-Aid and 7-Up makes a great drinkable potion. If you really want to have fun with it, get an erlenmeyer flask (scientific flask). You can usually get them cheaply on eBay, but if that doesn't work a search at amazon.com will usually give you a list of catalogs you can get one from, or you can try a Google search. Just be sure to find a catalog that will sell them individually (unless you really want a case of them!)

Add a packet of Kool-Aid to your newly acquired flask. Then, in front of the kids, pour in some 7-Up. Don't overdo it, because it is going to bubble and fizz right up to the top! Then pour the mixture into your punch bowl. Add a 2 liter of 7-Up, sugar (yes, you still need sugar even though you are mixing with 7-Up... I suggest 1/2 Cup), stir and serve in plastic goblets.

To really have fun with this, you can get a big plastic cauldron and put your punch bowl inside of it. Then serve from the cauldron. Cauldrons are easiest to get around Halloween, but an internet search could probably get you one any time of year.

Pumpkin Juice

In Harry Potter, the kids at Hogwarts drink pumpkin juice. I have never tried real pumpkin juice, but I'd bet that if you serve orange Kool-Aid and call it pumpkin juice, the kids will prefer that to the real thing!

Harry Potter Birthday Cakes

Your local bakery can no doubt make you a cake with Harry Potter on it. Looking for something more unusual... How about a Castle Cake, a Quidditch Field, or the super simple Wizard Hat cake?

NEW Cake Idea: Harry Potter Golden Snitch Cake

Castle Cake

Make 2 cakes in regular cake pans. Stack one on top of the other. For the towers, cut 2 ice cream cones in half the long way. Place one of the halves upside down at the base of each corner. Place a whole ice cream cone on top of each half, facing upright. You can add upside down sugar cones to the top if you want pointed rooftops.

If you want a gray castle, make gray frosting by adding black paste food coloring to white frosting. Frost the cake and the towers. If you are using the sugar cones, you can make dress them up a little by making a paste of powdered sugar & water, painting it on them, and rolling them (while still wet) in black sprinkles.

The cake you can see below was made for a "Knight" birthday party, but works well for a Harry Potter party...

View a Castle Cake here

Don't want to make your own Castle Cake? If you give the above information to your local bakery, they should be able to do it for you! Click the link below and you will see a Castle Cake made by a bakery for a Harry Potter party.

View a Castle Cake made by a bakery

Quidditch Cake

Make a cake that looks like a Quidditch field! Using either a regular cake pan or a sheet cake pan, bake your choice of cake. Frost the top green, and add three sticks with hoops (varying lengths) at each end. You could make these with Sculpey or use stir sticks with the plastic rings that seal the lids on gallons of milk, or use bubble wands. Be creative! Use graham crackers to create the towers, and frost them in the colors of the school houses.

The Harry Potter Quidditch Cake pictured here was made by Kerry M. of Georgia. It's a six-layer cake (4 yellow and 2 chocolate) with a layer of buttercream icing and covered in fondant.

The top of the cake is iced with green glitter icing and sprinkled with green sugar crystals for 'grass..' Angel food cake slices with fondant and painted with food coloring make the stands.

The house animal (red-gryffindor-lion, yellow-hufflepuff-badger, blue-ravenclaw-raven, green-slytherin-snake) is painted on the front of each house stand. The flags are strips of fruit rollup.

The base of the cake is meant to be 'rock' and is made from coco krispie treats (made with chocolate marshmallow) and have candy 'grass' tufts. The goal posts are made from spaghetti and lifesavers, secured with icing.

The people are made out of fondant and wrapped in fruit rollups (except Madame Hooch, who is wearing a fondant robe) and riding pretzel brooms with fruit rollup bristles. Two of the players have the bludger bats and one has the quaffle. Two bludgers and the golden snitch are coming off the cake via wire. Madame Hooch is standing by the trunk the balls/bats go in when not in play. It's made from chocolate, chocolate marshmallows and cinnamon graham crackers. >>View Photo Gallery of Harry Potter Quidditch Cake

Wizard Hat Cake

Make a cake in an 9 x 13 " cake pan. Turn the cake out. Trim the sides so the cake is shaped like a triangle with a point at the top (see photo below left). You can use the pieces you cut off to make an identical cake - trim the bottom straight if you don't like the point. (see photo below right)

Note: If you are using store-bought frosting, you can get by with one can for both cakes if you are very frugal, but I recommend buying two cans.



Frost and decorate as you wish - use star-shaped sprinkles, or trim fruit leather into stars and moons if you wish! Frost black for a more traditional Harry Potter look.

This cake is very easy to make and decorate - the birthday child can help decorate too!

Golden Snitch Cake

Have you read the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Harry's birthday cake (courtesy of Mrs. Weasley) is shaped like a golden snitch. Now you can have your very own golden snitch birthday cake - and it's very easy to do. All you need is a ball cake pan (see right).

Bake the cake according to the pan directions, then add your golden frosting (yellow food coloring to white frosting). Use icing and a decorating tip to add the wings, and then you have your Harry Potter golden snitch cake!

Harry Potter Party Games & Activities

Sort Students
Make Potions
Scavenger Hunt
Decorate Magic Wands
Bertie Bott Bean Tasting

Sort Students

Students at Hogwarts are sorted into four different houses - Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw & Slytherin - by an old hat known as the Sorting Hat. When you place it upon your head, it decides which house you belong in.

You can sort students into houses as well. You need an old-looking witches hat (you can get a sorting hat from Birthdayz by Shindigz - see right). Put the various house names on slips of paper and have each child draw one out to see which house they will belong to. Note: Some kids - especially younger ones - will just want to be in Gryffindor House (like Harry, Ron & Hermione). Sorting into different houses is more fun for older kids - I suggest they be at least upper elementary!

Make Potions

***Please note -- the following idea requires a Harry Potter Potions Kit refill pack. These are getting to be scarce! I am leaving this idea here for those who may have the kit or are able to find it, but be advised that you may not be able to find the items necessary for this activity***

Potions are easy to make with a Harry Potter Potions Kit. These are sold in most stores that carry toys. You can buy just the refills without the entire kit (the refills are all you need to make it).

The potions kit gives you various powders you mix together. Read the directions - there are some that bubble and change colors which is a lot of fun for kids.

For added fun, try small black plastic cups - they look like little cauldrons. Give each child a cup with a small amount of water in it (whatever is needed for the potion), a colorful stir stick, and the powders they need for the potion. You can use small cups available at many party stores to hold the powders. Let the kids mix them, then they can drink up!

Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunts are a great party activity for all ages - they can easily be altered to make easier for young children or more difficult for older ones.

For a Scavenger Hunt at a Harry Potter party, you can use great wizarding props. Try plastic snakes and glow in the dark frogs (check your dollar store), fancy coins (the wizarding world doesn't use regular money, you know!), sorcerer's stones (use decorative stones often available in dollar stores). How about letting them search for a Golden Snitch? For those parents not in the know, it is from a game called Quidditch. The Seeker (which is the position Harry Potter plays) has to find the Golden Snitch to earn 150 points and end the game. It is a small golden ball with wings. These are easy to make with Ping-Pong balls - spray paint them gold, then add yellow wings.

You need to give the kids a list of what item to look for. I have done this before as a 'Gryffindor Common Room Lost & Found' list. Gryffindor is Harry's school house at Hogwarts. The room where you hide the items is referred to as the Gryffindor Common Room. Add a portrait of the Fat Lady (remember the Fat Lady?) hanging over the door, so they have to go through her to get in. It may be best to send them in small groups - it depends on how many kids you have and how big the room is. You don't want them knocking each other over to find the items.

Give each child a list of lost items they need to find. Frogs can be called 'Trevor' (Neville Longbottom, one of the Gryffindor boys, has a frog named Trevor), snakes can be called 'Basilisks'. For younger children, add a picture of each item next to it to help them locate items without reading. If you are making Goodie Bags (see below under Party Favors), kids can put items in their bags as they find them. If you made Broomstick Pencils (also under Party Favors, below), they can check off items with the pencil.

See an example of a Scavenger Hunt list
View cloth Goodie Bag with some scavenger hunt goodies

Magic Wands

Dowel Rods make great magic wands, and they're cheap! You can get them at Hobby Lobby if you have one around you, and other craft/hobby stores.

As an activity you can let the kids decorate them. Put glue in one cup, and sequins or glitter in another. Let the kids dunk the ends to decorate. (See decorated wands, below)

Bertie Bott Bean Tasting

This is a simple activity that usually gets a lot of laughs. In the books, Bertie Bott Every Flavor Beans are jelly beans that come in every flavor (even flavors such as ear wax!) You can buy these in stores. They are called Bertie Bott Every Flavor Beans - just like in the books - and they are made by the Jelly Belly people. There are some great flavors - like buttered popcorn - and some really terrible ones like dirt, pepper, sardines, and the very worst... vomit.

They come with a flavor chart so you can identify what you are getting. Let each child choose one, and see if they can guess the flavor. Keep a garbage can handy! Kids usually enjoy this - and get a lot of laughs from watching other kids faces as they taste these 'treats'.

Harry Potter Party Favors

Harry Potter Glasses
Lightning Bolt Tattoos
Broomstick Pencils (see below)
Magic Wands (Kids can make themselves - see Games & Activities) or give glow-stick magic wands (available at our Party Store)
Chocolate Frogs (see below)
Witches & Wizards Cards (see Chocolate Frogs, below)
Make-Your-Own Goodie Bags (see below)

Broomstick Pencils

To make these you need pencils and natural raffia. Put a small piece of tape sticky side out around the top of the pencil on the metal area near the eraser. Cut several pieces of raffia and lay them on the tape all the way around the pencil. Take another piece of raffia and wrap it around the taped area, tying down the other pieces of raffia. Tie it off and you have a broomstick pencil.

See a broomstick pencil here

Chocolate Frogs

You can buy chocolate frogs that come with wizard cards (just like in the Harry Potter books), but it is more cost effective to make them. You need a candy mold in the shape of a frog. A google search should help you find one on the internet. They are easy to make...follow the directions on the package of chocolate (used for candy making).

In the Harry Potter books, the chocolate frogs come with 'Famous Witches & Wizards' trading cards. You can substitute the Harry Potter trading cards, or make your own witches & wizards cards.

Put them in baggies, tie them with a ribbon. Consider adding a 'Honeydukes Sweet Shop' tag (that's the candy store in the wizarding world).

See homemade chocolate frogs with trading cards

Make-Your-Own Goodie Bags

Cloth bags are easy to make, inexpensive, and a keepsake for party guests. Use a length of felt (how long depends on how many you need to make), and trace around something round - like a dinner plate. Cut out the felt circle, then punch a series of holes around the top. There may be a tool that will do this easier, but I used a paper hole punch - a little tiring on the hands, but it worked fine. Thread some yarn through the holes, leaving the ends long enough to tie together. Put knots on the ends, so they don't come unthreaded.

The bags can be used to carry party favors, or put scavenger hunt items in if you are having a scavenger hunt.

View cloth Goodie Bag with some scavenger hunt goodies