Harry Potter parties are always popular and appeal to a wide age range. Here are some ideas for a Harry Potter themed party.
Invitations
Large envelope and seal:
Invite friends to Hogwarts with an official looking invitation in a large, handmade envelope with red wax seal.
Scroll:
Write your invitation on white paper, stain with a cooled coffee or tea mixture, and roll up when dry. Tie with red ribbon or seal with red wax.
House ties:
Print and colour our Hogwarts House Ties and use them as invitations - or cut them out and send them as they are in an envelope, with instructions for children to colour them in in their favourite house's colours and wear them to the party!
Owl letter:
Make an origami owl and attach it to the front of your envelope - it is delivering your owl post! Alternatively print or write your invitation on the paper that you use to fold your owl - it will need to be "unwrapped" at the other end.
Origami Owl (a little tricky!)
Harry Potter Party Games
- Play "Who Am I" to break the ice. As children arrive, pin a piece of paper onto their back on which you have written the name of a character from the Harry Potter books (give the easier characters to the younger children). Kids must then move around the room asking questions about their character, which can only be answered with "yes" or "no". Examples are "Am I a wizard?" "Am I a muggle?" "Am I a child?" "Am I good at magic?" and so on..
- Split into teams using a Sorting Hat
- If you haven't used the Hogwarts House Ties already, children could colour in a tie each and wear it for the next game...
- Have a Treasure Hunt, using place-names from the books. Tell the children that each area in which they will be hunting has a particular name. For example, the garden might be the grounds of Hogwarts, the sitting room might be Diagon Alley, and the kitchen might be Hagrid's hut. Write your clues so that the children have to find a letter in each location, which can be unscrambled at the end to produce a suitable Harry Potter word - perhaps Hogwarts, or Gryffindor. Older siblings will love to help you plan the treasure hunt!
- Play Quidditch out in the garden. Set up two goals at either end and give each player a broomstick with which to sweep the ball-shaped golden snitch into the appropriate goal. Explain that you are playing the muggles version of the game because nobody can fly! If you need to play indoors, you can improvise a game with broomsticks made out of rolled up newspapers (the children can make their own) and a yellow balloon. Or make our origami golden snitch.
- Mix up a Magic Potion. First let your party guests mix two cups of white glue with 1½ cups of water. Add a few drops of food colouring. In a separate container, combine two teaspoons of borax in 2/3 cup of warm water, and mix well. Next, ask the party guests to mix the borax mixture with the glue solution and watch what happens when the two are mixed together. Supervise young children carefully while they make their magic potion, and cover up party clothes and costumes if necessary. Alternatively, mix up some some slime or a bubble recipe, which you can then have fun playing with.
- Play a Trivia Quiz. A search around the main Harry Potter fan sites will give you lots of ideas for questions.
- Make Costumes. Use some black bin bags to make cloaks (cut semi-circular shapes and use safety pins to attach at shoulders) and black craft paper to make wands. Decorate with glitter and silver stars.
- Wear your costumes while playing The Magic Wand Game. You will need some small food - mini marshmallows, M&Ms, or Smartees are ideal (we used to play with peanuts, but check for allergies first). You will also need a pair of chopsticks - preferable black ones - dressed up with stickers to look like magic wands, and a pair of dice. Players sit in a circle around the goodies and chopsticks, and take turns to roll the dice. If a player gets a double, they rush to the centre of the circle and start eating the goodies, using only the chopsticks to pick them up. They can continue eating until another player throws a double, and takes their place. The game can be made more exciting and noisy by adding a few extra dressing-up clothes in the centre of the circle - perhaps a wizard's hat and some Harry Potter glasses. These have to be put on before you can start eating, and swapped over to the next player when they take your place!
Harry Potter Party Bags
Wizards hats, turned upside down, make great alternative party bags for a Harry Potter party. You can buy them inexpensively at your party store or online. Buy a wand for each child too. You could also add a pair of Harry Potter spectacles, which are often available cheaply from many party stores or fancy dress outfitters.
See if you can find some chocolate frogs!
Print out a selection of our Harry Potter Puzzles and Harry Potter colouring pages for kids to do when they get home.
Add a small bottle of bubble mixture. You could cover the bottle with a cylinder of purple paper and add a label saying "Magic Potion".
