This Harry Potter Birthday Party is full of great ideas for games, food, and decor! Perfect inspiration for your next birthday bash!
*This post contains affiliate links. This means that I get a small commission for referring you to the item, but the price doesn’t change for you.
This past summer my boy discovered the magical world of Harry Potter! He read the books and then watched the movies, and he loved both but said the books were better. (DUH!) He wants a Harry Potter bedroom now, but first he wanted a Harry Potter birthday party. I was happy to oblige!
I will happily admit that I got most of my ideas from the magical land of Pinterest, so I will try to link you to the original posts as much as possible.
Let’s talk decor first. As the kids arrived at our home they entered via Platform 9 3/4. This was a $1 plastic tablecloth that I sponge painted to look like a brick wall. Man, oh man, were my legs BURNING after squatting down to do that project all afternoon! Grab the free “Platform 9 3/4” printable HERE.
Upon entering the hallway the kids saw paintings of the four Hogwarts founders: Godric Griffyndor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin. Funny story about these paintings: about 15 years ago, my sister wanted a Harry Potter birthday party for her 19th birthday (yes, you read that correctly . . .) and her best friend Lizzy painted these paintings, along with the beautiful Dumbledore painting on the cake table. I came across them in the basement not long ago and knew they MUST be kept for such things as Harry Potter parties and bedrooms. JACKPOT, right?!
As you can see, the party favor table was also in the hallway. Each kid went home with a bag of chocolate frogs, some dragon slime (more on that later), a wand and spells (more on that later), and a mugshot from Azkaban (more on that later as well).
Moving into the main room, one passes under the flying keys. (Remember in book one when Harry has to get on a broom and find the flying key to unlock the door at the end of the book?) To make these flying keys, I bought THESE old fashioned keys, and printed out THIS wing printable and hot glued them. Then I hung them from the ceiling with fishing line and thumbtacks. This took FOREVER, so I plan to reuse the flying keys in his Harry Potter bedroom.
Now we come the the main room of partying fun. I tried to make it super festive, but I’m not sure the wild little boys even noticed. Ha!
A few notes: I made the “stone wall” from a plastic gray tablecloth and a super fat permanent marker. I got the “Happy Birthday” banner HERE. The Dumbledore painting was painted by my sister’s best friend, Lizzy (aka the artist Elizabeth Bergeland). I got the sorting hat HERE. I got the Hedwig puppet long ago, but I believe THIS is the same one. I got the candles (which I hung with fishing line) HERE.
Before I go on to activities, I must give a shout-out to our guest, Moaning Myrtle. Haha! (Just look up Moaning Myrtle on Google and print out a picture of her.)
On to activities! As the boys entered, I had them head to the Azkaban WANTED poster photo booth. Their pictures were so cute. Some of them got really into it and some just cluelessly smiled. Hahaha. Printables for making this photo booth can be found on THIS awesome blog post. I used my Instax camera to take these pictures (find it HERE). It’s essentially a cute polaroid camera!
Next they headed in to play the Quidditch ping pong game, which was a variation of the idea from THIS blog post. I used her method for making the goals, but for playing the kids just tried to bounce the ping pong balls through the hoops. Not gonna lie, this got crazy. 11 little boys . . . . it ended up with them just chucking ping pong balls at one another. LOL. Whatcha gonna do? 🙂
After everyone arrived they got “sorted” and received their wands. I got the awesome sorting hat HERE on Amazon. There was a slightly cheaper option that looked on in pictures, but it had terrible reviews, so I decided to stick with this one. It turned out great, and I intend to use it in his bedroom as well.
To be sorted, they drew houses from a cauldron. They didn’t do group games or anything. It was just for fun.
Next they got their wands. I made the wands with bamboo chopsticks (found HERE), hot glue, spray paint, and sealant. I saw this idea several places, but HERE is a good tutorial for it. I LOVE the way they turned out!
For fun wand practice (which deteriorated into duels with them screaming unforgivable curses at one another – LOL) I found this sheet of want motions. My son and I looked up what each spell meant and made a key for it. HERE is where I originally saw the wand motion picture. I can’t find the original source. HERE is a free printable of the key for the spells.
After spells practice it was time for potions class and the making of DRAGON SLIME! It was a VERY messy affair, although it went more smoothly than I had anticipated. HERE is a printable of the recipe we used. (Dragon Bile = Elmer’s glue, powdered dragon bone = baking soda, dragon spit = contact solution (be sure it contains boric acid — Walmart brand Equate is a good one to use), dragon blood = food coloring) HERE is a printable of the labels I made for everything. I got the slime containers HERE.
Next up was PIN THE NOSE ON VOLDEMORT! I saw the idea on Pinterest HERE, but there were no instructions or printables, so I had to just draw my best Voldemort and make some silly noses. It’s a sad attempt, but it worked. 😉
Next up the boys enjoyed Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Jelly Beans (found HERE) while we prepped the food. Chocolate frogs (I used a mold I got years ago), frozen Butterbeer (recipe found HERE), and a very fancy cake. Just kidding —- my cake making skills are the WORST, so I embraced that and made him a cake like the one that Hagrid made Harry for his 11th birthday. The boys had a BLAST with the jellybeans daring one another to eat the gross ones. It was hilarious.
Finally, after presents we played “Would You Rather: Harry Potter Edition.” Find the printable game HERE.
All in all, the party was a crazy, chaotic success! Note to self: next time invite fewer little boys. Haha! I hope our Harry Potter birthday party inspired you to create something Harry Potter of your own!
************************
(Affiliate Links below – This means I get a small credit for referring you to the company, but it doesn’t cost you any extra.)
If you love Harry Potter as much as we do, and you are thinking about taking your little ones to Universal Studios Hollywood to see “Harry Potter World,” then you should check out the travel agency Get Away Today. They have vacation LAYAWAY PLANS! Isn’t that brilliant?! Paying off your vacay a bit at a time makes it so much more realistic and affordable! Check out their amazing discounts and packages, and be sure to use the coupon code BLING to get an additional $10 off of your booking!
************************
If you loved this birthday party then you are sure to love these parties as well:
How to Train Your Dragon Birthday Party
Latest posts by Sarah Westover McKenna (see all)
- Harry Potter Birthday Party - March 22, 2019
- Christmas Caramels - December 14, 2018
- Christmas Sugar Cookies Recipe - December 12, 2018
This is amazing! Thank you for putting together this blog post – you’ve given me a million great ideas for my daughter’s HP themed birthday!
YAY!!!! Have such a fun party!!