Harry Potter has not lost its magic but continues to draw new fans and also excite the old ones. Many of us have either hosted or attended Harry Potter themed parties.
And those parties are always awesome! Drinking butterbeer and playing Quidditch never gets old. But if you’d like to have a new twist to your themed party I have a few ideas for you. The “themes within a theme” :).
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1. Quidditch World Cup
This fun sporting event would be a perfect theme for Harry Potter party!
Wizards from all over the world gathered to this amazing competition to cheer on their favorite players.
You will earn the Awesome Hostess award by hosting this event followed by a big sleepover in the backyard!
It can seem like quite the hassle to build your quidditch game but it will be all worth it. You’ll find many tutorials online.
The main three things you’ll need
- Quidditch game
- food carts
- tents for the guests to spend the night in
Though, you won’t be flying on the broomsticks, I bet this will be a party they will talk about long after. You’ll have fun playing the Quidditch game and eating special theme fitting food.
In addition to the Quidditch essentials you might need
- quidditch jerseys
- board for score keeping
Check out these MAGICAL HARRY POTTER FOOD IDEAS
2. Camp in the Forest of Dean
Harry and Ron found the Gryffindor Sword in a pond in the Forest of Dean. Ron used the sword to destroy the horcrux locket.
This would be an awesome Harry Potter birthday party idea for a teen.
- Set up a tent and have a sleepover outdoors.
- Sit by campfire and tell stories while roasting marshmallows.
- A scavenger hunt looking for the Gryffindor Sword would be pretty fun.
3. Shop in The Diagon Alley
Diagon Alley is the magical shopping area for the wizards. The hidden entrance to the Diagon Alley is through the Leaky Cauldron – a dark little gloomy pub and Inn.
Create your Leaky Cauldron entrance to your party. Appoint the special brick that needs to be tapped three times for the door to open to the Diagon Alley.
Set up a few shops in your party area and organize awesome activities in them.
Your kids and guests will have a terrific time wondering around Diagon Alley. Eat cake and other goodies in one of the many cafes in Diagon Alley or have treats in each shop.
Eeylops Owl Emporium
- Place a few beanie owls for kids to buy or to look at.
- Make an owl craft.
- Food: owl cupcakes
Florean Frotescue’s Ice Cream Parlour
- Decorate your ice cream shop with pictures of creative ice cream servings.
- Have tables and chairs for available for those enjoying ice cream.
- Activity: make ice cream.
- Food: Ice Cream
Flourish and Blotts
A bookstore where most of the Hogwarts students purchased their school books.
- Books all over the place: tables, chairs, bookcases.
- Have a story time.
- Make bookmarks.
- Food: Bookworms.
Gringotts Wizarding Bank
- Stack up chocolate coins on the bank counter.
- Game: What’s in the vault. Put items in boxes or bags and have the kids guess what’s in them by shaking them or feeling them through the wrapping.
- Food: Chocolate coins, “gold” oreos (paint oreos with edible gold food paint)
Madam Primpernelle’s Beautifying Potions
- Activity: manicure or sugar scrub hand treatment
- Activity: make your own beauty product (You’ll find great DIY beauty products on Pinterest)
- Food: Parfait in fancy glasses.
Ollivander’s Wands
- Activity: make a wand. All you need is acrylic paint, sticks or chopsticks and hot glue to give your chopsticks texture.
- Food: Licorice wands.
Quality Quidditch Supplies
- Decorate the shop with inexpensive brooms from dollar store.
- Activity: Find the hidden snitch [Make your own snitch with wings and Lindt chocolate] Free Snitch Wings Printable.
- Food: Peanut buttercup brooms. (Stick a pretzel stick in a mini size peanut buttercup)
Scribbulus Writing Implements
A stationary store in Diagon Alley selling quills, ink, and parchment.
- Activity: decorate a notebook
- Activity: make a quill pen
- Food: Fruit roll ups.
Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes
The joke shop owned by Fred and George had quite interesting items in it such as
- Extendable ears used for eavesdropping
- Chinese fortune sticks (chopsticks with a fortune written on it)
- Skiving Snackbox (a box filled with candy)
- Food: I don’t know if anyone would be brave enough to eat at this place…
I’m not into pranks etc but if you can come up with a few harmless things to put in your joke shop I think your party guests will love it!
4. Sorting Ceremony and Classes
This party is probably the most common Harry Potter party nevertheless it is always a hoot.
You can sort your guests into houses in many different ways:
- colored candy inside a cupcake
- magical potion (put a food color drop in a cup, cover with ice, pour sprite over and watch it change color)
- quiz
- sorting hat
Host a Welcome Feast in the Great Hall with lots and lots of food served from gold plates. The floating candles shimmering in the otherwise dark hall. Check out the ideas at HARRY POTTER PARTY ON SMALL BUDGET
Organize a few classes:
Potions Class
Always one of the favorite ones. The kids have a blast making their potions.
We had various ingredients in the bottles such as
- glitter
- vinegar
- baking soda
- food coloring
- grass
- rose petals
I used the google translator to give some of the ingredients their latin names.
Charms Class
Teach a few wand moves and learn a couple of charms like Wingardium Leviosa and Alohomora.
Wingardium Leviosa is a charm used to make objects fly.
You can try it on balloons. My daughter and her friends had fun keeping balloons afloat with their awesome wands.
Alohomora is also known as Thief’s Friend. It is used to open doors and windows.
We made the box (picture above) filled with goodies to practice the Alohomora charm.
- cardboard box
- foam bowls
- tissue paper
- candy or other little surprises
Cut out openings for the foam bowls. Fill the bowls with goodies. Cover with tissue paper. Insert into the holes. You might want to glue or tape them to keep them in place.
The kids used their wands and the alohomora charm to open the surprise bowl.
Herbology
Plant a flower or herbs for everyone to take home. Or make cute moss creatures.
Magical Creatures
In our party the magical creatures had escaped and the girls had to go find them. Our magical creatures were my little ponies and unicorns that were scattered all over the yard hiding.
5. Games and Activities in Common Rooms
Create Hogwarts Common Rooms with the easy ideas in the HARRY POTTER PARTY ON SMALL BUDGET.
Each Common Room is so different from beautiful airy, starry-sky Ravenclaw Common Room to creepy, greenish Slytherin Dungeon under the lake.
We hosted a fun party where the kids were guests of a particular Hogwarts house. They spent a lot of time in that common room but also visited the others to play games and do other activities. Check out HARRY POTTER ACTIVITY IDEAS.
Get Marauder’s Map Cribbage Board from Unique Wood Products 1 and let the race begin! Collect points for your Hogwarts House as you move through the Hogwarts Castle.
6. Weasley’s Home – The Best House I’ve Ever Been
Is there a cozier place to host your Harry Potter themed party than in the warm, welcoming Weasley House – The Burrow. Even Harry himself said in the Chamber of Secrets: “This is the best house I’ve ever been in.“
Fireplace in the Floo Network
If you don’t have a fireplace you can find a fireplace video on youtube and display that. Or make one from a cardboard box and use red Christmas lights for fire.
Place a jar of Floo powder next to the fireplace.
Clocks
Weasleys had odd clocks. The clock in the kitchen told things like “time to make tea” or “you’re late”.
The Weasley clock was in the living room. It had nine golden hands one for each member of the family. This clock showed whereabouts of each family member.
Garden Gnomes
Weasley family had quite feisty garden gnomes and every now and then they de-gnomed the garden.
De-gnoming could be one of your party activities.
Hide gnomes (print or draw them) in the party area and send the kids looking for them. Who finds the most wins.
3D Puzzle of the Burrow
You’ll have a great time working together on a 3D puzzle featuring the Burrow.
Other Items for Weasley Home Look
- checkered table cloth
- assorted chairs
- knitting project on a chair
- books
- cauldrons
- quilts
- anything rustic
Feast the Weasley Style
- bacon sandwiches
- chicken and ham pie
- boiled potatoes
- salad
- marmalade
- toast
Send also the invitations Weasley style and cover the envelope with stamps. Or send a howler…
7. Triwizard Tournament
Remember the excitement when Harry Potter, in his fourth year, was one of the contestants in Triwizard Tournament — a magical sporting event between three wizarding schools.
Entering the Tournament
As the guests arrive ask them to write their name on a paper and place it in the Goblet of Fire.
You need:
- pen
- paper
- Goblet of Fire
How to Make Goblet of Fire
Easy.
- Select a bowl to be your goblet.
- Cut up paper flames.
- Tape the paper flames on the inside of bowl rim.
And like magic you have a Goblet of Fire DIY!
Selecting Contestants
Depending how you want to run your Tournament Party you could either select three contestants at a time by pulling their names out of the Goblet of Fire or read out everyone’s names at once.
The Three Tasks
1. Capture the Golden Egg
Harry and the other contestants had to fight a dragon that was protecting the golden egg. Each contestant faced a different dragon.
- Common Welsh Green
- Chinese Fireball
- Swedish Short-Snout
- Hungarian Horntail
You probably don’t have dragons but can create other obstacles.
Maybe set up a dragon bowling course. The players need to reach certain point level to get to the egg.
You need:
- Bowling pins
- Dragons
- Ball
- Golden Eggs (one for each player)
Hot glue plastic dragons to bowling pins. And there you have your awesome Dragon Bowling Pins for your amazing Harry Potter Triwizard Tournament Party!
In the story there was a clue inside the egg about the next task. You could also fill it up with a little sweet surprise.
2. Find a Treasure Under Water
…And while you’re searching, ponder this: We’ve taken what you’ll sorely miss… –Mermaid Riddle (J.K. Rowling, Goblet of Fire)
In the Harry Potter story, each contestant had to rescue a loved one whom the mermaids were guarding.
To keep everyone safe: Do not tie anyone to a pole underwater. Okay. Now that we have made sure that nothing like that is going to happen we can move on to the task.
It would be awesome if you have a pool or can host the party at lake.
You need:
- Diving Toys
- Mermaids
- Floats
Attach mermaids to floats (so they don’t sink) to “guard” the treasures.
Scatter diving toys in the pool. Send the kids looking for them.
3. Find the Triwizard Cup In a Maze
This could be done as a scavenger hunt with clues and tasks.
You need:
- scavenger hunt clues
- Triwizard Cup, gold trophy
This Harry Potter themed party will be so much fun! A party that I could see teen boys liking too… if you can make it challenging enough.
8. Yule Ball at Hogwarts
The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to — er — let our hair down. -Minerva McGonagall (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
All the students fourth year and above were invited to this grand celebration on Christmas Day.
Your guests will be delighted to receive these creative Yule Ball invitations.
Decorate your ballroom with Christmas lights. Tape them to the ceiling or hang them from the curtain rods for a beautiful effect.
Host a feast and serve delicious food such as goulash and stew just like they did at Hogwarts. Or have snack tables at the ballroom to keep the crowd fed and happy.
A gorgeous Christmas staircase backdrop creates a stunning atmosphere for your Hogwarts Yuleball.
Maybe you won’t be able to recruit the Weird Sisters band but a fabulous playlist will keep the guests dancing and having fun.
Fun Harry Potter Yule Ball Activities
- eating
- dancing
- make ornaments like these patronus ornaments from Kitchen Counter Chronicle
- secret Santa gift exchange
- dance games like freeze dance and “do all the moves”
how to play “do all the moves”:
- Form a circle of dancers
- The first person gets in the middle and does a dance move.
- Then she goes back to her spot.
- The next person goes to the middle and does the first person’s dance move AND a new move.
- The third person does the first two moves and adds another.
- And so on until the last person gets in the middle and has to do everyone’s dance moves.
Related Post: awesome Christmas party themes you’ll always remember.
Explore also these Harry Potter Ideas
- Magical Harry Potter Party on Small Budget
- Hogwarts Feast – Whip Out Your Wands And Make Yummy Treats
- 16 Enchanting Harry Potter Crafts
- 23 Awesome Harry Potter Gift Ideas for Your Favorite Potterhead
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