Harry Potter Party Theme

This fall, we celebrated our daughters 11- year-birthday.  She chose a Harry Potter theme in honor of her completing all seven books. There are so many fabulous ideas available for this particular theme but we featured "her favorites" listed below at her party.


1. HONEY DUKES SWEET SHOP
Set up a Candy Bar complete with Harry Potter Candy. such as Fizzing Whizbees, Bertie Bott's Jelly Belly's and chocolate covered frogs.  We included cupcakes, cake balls, red licorice and any gooey wormy candy we could find.  Small cauldrons were set out so kids could fill up with their choice of candy or Honeydukes Special Wizard Treat Mix with gummy spiders and Gryffindor colors added for color. We also served Butterbeer for all the girls to try.  

2. Wand Shop
We hung 16 wands (precut tree branches sprayed with silver and gold glitter) from the ceiling of her tree house.  After all the guests arrived, Herminey (my daughter) introduced each girl to the group saying how they were friends. Then she spun them after saying a wizard spell and whatever wand they pointed to is the one that "chose" them. 


3. SORTING HAT
In Harry Potter, once the muggles arrive at Hogwarts, they learn what house they are in.  We made a sorting hat out of a grocery bag turned inside out and placed Gryffindor and Hufflepuff badges in them.  The girls randomly picked and for the rest of the evening were to compete with their house against the other. You can download custom designed badges here. 


4. The GREAT HALL
All the kids sat at their house table.  We asked a Harry Potter trivia question and the team who answered correctly the fastest went first.  Dumbledore (the dad) served up two dishes:  
-Dumbledore Delight (Shepherds Pie) 
-Wheezy Cheezy Macaroni (Macaroni and Cheese casserole) 
While one group was being served the other group had to guess how many jelly beans were in the jar.  Closest guess won the jar of jelly beans for their house.
At each placesetting, was a glass of ice and bottled water.  When the water was poured into the glass, the water would turn a magic color (food coloring at bottom of cup) revealing a personality trait to their peers. 

5. Quidditch Game
Next we played a game of quidditch.  Every girl needed a broomstick.  Each team selects 1 keeper, 3 chasers and/or beaters and 1 seeker.  
Two hula hoops were tied to a tree branch at opposite ends of the yard. One player from each team (the keeper) would guard the hula hoops from getting a ball through the hoop. Three (chasers) passed around a ball trying to score in the opposing team's hoop. If they scored they are awarded ten points if the keeper blocks it he tosses it to a chaser on their own team. 3 beaters pass around a small squishy ball. They try and throw it at the bigger ball if the opposing team has it. If the squishy ball hits the big ball the person on the opposing team must throw the ball up in the air so anyone can get it. The last player on each team is a seeker. A gold spray painted ball (or snitch) was hidden somewhere in the yard somewhere where it can be seen but only a little bit. One seeker on each team looks for it. Whatever team finds it first the game is over and they are awarded one hundred and fifty points.


6. MOVIE TIME AND CLASS PROJECTS 

After three games of quidditch we put the movie
in.  Two tables were set up with class activities.  At one table the girls traced an owl, golden snitch, or rat onto shrinky dink paper. Then we put them in the oven and watched them shrink down hence transfiguration. (so fun!!!) They made them into keychains and brought them home.  This was my favorite activity as the girls got so creative and started drawing free hand, making luggage tags and special messages for the bday girl.   
On the other table were two pumpkins.  One for Gryffindor and the other Hufflepuff.  The kids had to extract the guts from the center of the pumpkin.  Then they could use various spices and sugars to flavor the seeds for snack. This was the POTION table.

at 3:00 in the morning the wizards went out 
and gave some neighbors a heart attack

OTHER DETAILS:
I used owls, spiders, and rats to decorate the tables.  The Harry Potter Books made great centerpieces as well as a Harry Potter Movie Poster, a custom designed 9 3/4 Entrance sign hung on the front door. (download my custom designed labels, door graphics and shrinky dink templates here)


The remaining night the girls did wizard spells and in the morning woke to a freshly baked batch of monkey bread.












Have you hosted a Harry Potter Party?  Share your secrets here.  Please share link with other Harry Potter Fans.