Harry Potter Birthday Party Ideas

From my experience, most kids will be absolutely thrilled about attending Harry Potter birthday party. If your child is a big fan of Harry Potter, then deciding on a theme for your party should be no-brainer!

I will walk you through everything that you need to know to plan your special event. You can use all the ideas from this page, or pick and choose what works the best for you. Just remember to use your imagination and have tons of fun!

Resources:

Invitations

For Harry Potter birthday invitations, you can use parchment paper and antique-looking calligraphy font. The wording could say "You are hereby invited to the Tri-Wizard Tournament at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at (give the street address). The training and tournament will take place on (date and time). And will include a Tournament Feast in honor of the birthday of ________. Please RSVP by owl post or muggle telephone to (include telephone number). Wizard or witch attire is encouraged, but muggle clothing is always appropriate."

You can roll your Harry Potter party invitations into scrolls, put a feather on them and seal them with a dripping wax from candles.

The following decoration ideas will help you create the magical atmosphere for your party.

You can decorate your yard area closely resembling Harry Potter theme. Have some plastic bats on the trees, a couple of Harry Potter brooms and a theme lantern just outside of the house.

To convert your dining room into the Great Hall, you can cut out yellow foam stars and moon. Next, paste them on black sheet and cover up the ceiling with it.

Hang gold and purple paper streamers around the top of the walls of your party room. Light candles everywhere to give the feel of the castle. Twist two colors of streamers together for best effect. Toss a few plastic bugs and frogs into the area. Decorate the wall with Hogwarts School banner and other theme posters.

Cover the table with Harry Potter party black table cover, and use gold plates, napkins, cups, and utensils. Place your child's Harry Potter toys on the party table as a centerpiece. Mark the birthday child's spot with a special Harry Potter stadium cup or wizard hat. Serve the drinks in old glass goblets for authenticity!

If you want, you can take your Harry Potter party decorations to a higher level. Divide all rooms in your house according to the plot: one room can be the Great Hall, another one - Potions, third - Divination/Herbology, and so on. You can cut felt into the banner shape, and design and glue the house emblems out of felt using the house colors for each. Next, you can hang all the banners on the wall.

You can hang icicle lights in the larger room to look like the hanging candles in the Great Hall. Hang regular white lights in the Potions room. In the Divination area, you can have large pillows to sit on around a low table. In Potions, you can have large candelabra - plus add some jars full of plastic spiders, snakes, frogs, crystal rocks, etc.

For a great decor item, you can have 3-D castle positioned in one of the rooms. Get the kids to pose in front of the castle for photos!

Greet children as they arrive and welcome them to "The Great Hall at Hogwarts!" Have Harry Potter party music playing in the background.

*Sorting Hat: Place the Sorting hat on each child when they arrive. As they wear the hat, say the names "Hufflepuff," "Ravenclaw," "Gryffindor" and "Slytherin." Then choose one name for each. Give that child a nametag. Write their name and the name of their chosen house on the nametag.

*Magic Wands: You can buy "magic wands" from a store. Give each child a wand to decorate. Provide bowls of sequins, glitter, ribbons, etc. Get the kids to decorate and personalize their wands.

*Face Paint: Give face paint to children to decorate themselves (or you can help them with face decorations). Distribute stickers and body tattoos.

You can pick from a variety of items to fill your Harry Potter goodie bags. I recommend that you use such favors as imitation gold coins, glasses, stickers, wristbands, glow sticks, mini goblets, etc.

Take a look at this cool favor pack for more ideas.

Harry Potter Party Games

*Story Time: You will need Harry Potter book for this activity. At party time, have all the kids sit in a circle. Have the birthday child begin by reading a favorite passage from the Harry Potter book. Pass the book around, and encourage each child to read a paragraph from the book out loud.

*Find the Magic Treasure: Come up with five or six clues. Write the clues on the index cards, and hide the cards throughout Harry Potter party area. Have the last clue lead to a treasure, such as favor bags, or a jar of colorful candy. For the clues you can write: "Look under the table, for a small bit of fable." You can write the words backwards so the kids must hold the index card in front of the mirror to read it.

The next clue could say: "I'm cold on the inside and I run all day and all night" (Answer: refrigerator). Next, write this clue "The place where boys and girls love to play with bubbles" (Answer: bathroom). Try writing clues with white crayon on the white index cards. Leave the clue with a colored marker and a note instructing the guests to scribble all over the paper to reveal the message. Then add more of your clues.

Attached to your magic treasure you can leave this clue: "With so many wizard friends to help you out, you're sure to solve this mystery, no doubt! Go back to the place where you began and discover the cake, I know you can!"

*Penny Magic: Have guests sit in a circle. Pull the birthday child aside and whisper into his or her ear the secret of the trick, "Select the penny that is warm." Bring the birthday child back into the circle. Show all the kids five pennies, which you place in a hat.

Have the birthday child select a penny and look at the date on the penny. Have the birthday child pass the selected penny around the circle so every guest has a chance to look at the date, and, most importantly touch the penny. Have the last player toss the penny back into the hat.

Shake up the pennies in the hat. Then have the birthday child select the correct penny from the hat without looking (he or she will select the warm penny, because copper absorbs heat, and the penny handled will now be warm). Repeat the magic with other players, gently whispering the secret to each child one at a time.

*Guess the Hooting Owl: Have the guests sit in a circle. Choose one player to sit in the middle of the circle. Blindfold this person and spin him or her around a couple of times.

Hand out a bottle. Tell the children to pass it around until the child in the center says, "Stop." At that point, the player holding the bottle must blow across it hooting like an owl. If the blindfolded child in the center can guess who it is, they trade places and the game continues.

*Bertie Bott's Flavor Bean Tasting Contest: For this Harry Potter party game you'll need 10 different flavors of jellybeans, with enough of each flavored-bean so every guest can get one.

Hand out paper and pencil to each Harry Potter party guest. Have them write numbers 1 to 10. Give each player the first flavored jellybean. Have them taste the jellybean and write their guess as to its flavor. When everyone is done, pass out the second flavor. Continue this until all 10 flavors have been tested.

Announce the correct flavors for all ten, while instructing the children to circle any flavors they get correct. The winner of the game is the player with the most correct answers.

Harry Potter Birthday Party

*Sorcerer's Globe: This is a great Harry Potter party craft for your group. For this activity you'll need glass jars with lids (1 for each child), play clay, glitter, glycerin, electrical (or waterproof) tape, and measuring spoons.

Hand out the play clay and instruct the children to mold their clay into a mushroom shape. When they are done molding, hand out some glitter and have each child press plenty of glitter onto their clay molding. Hand out lids from glass jars to children. Show the kids how to press the stem of the clay mushroom shape onto the bottom of the jar lid.

Hand out jars filled almost to the top with water and stir in a couple drops of glycerin (or bubble solution) and a 1/2 tsp of glitter. Screw the lids tightly onto the jars and invert the globes.

*Spider Catch: Have plastic spiders or insects throughout the party area. Some of them may be clearly visible, as they add to Harry Potter party decorations.

Announce that Harry's spiders have escaped from his "cupboard under the stairs." Harry needs help finding and collecting all his lost spiders. Have the children collect the spiders.

*Outdoor Quidditch: For this Harry Potter party game you will need a broom for each child (try borrowing some from friends and neighbors) and a ball.

Divide the kids into two teams. Set a line (goal) at either side of the game area for each team. The object is to brush the ball across the opposing team's goal line. Only the brooms may touch the ball, the ball may not be kicked or picked up. However it may be passed from broom to broom. And no high-sticking!

For an added fun have the birthday child wear the Quidditch gear.

*Indoor Quidditch: You'll need gold or yellow colored ball ("Golden Snitch"). Have children sit in a circle. Play music as they pass the "snitch". The person holding the "snitch" when the music stops must sit out until the next game. As children go "out", give each a treat.

*The Thinker: Have one child, the "thinker", wear a wizard hat. The thinker must think of a character from the Harry Potter books, or a guest attending Harry Potter party, but must not say who he or she is thinking of. The other children must ask questions that can be answered "yes" or "no" to guess which person the thinker has in mind.

*Harry Potter Cake: Prepare two-layer cake mix according to package directions. You can get Harry Potter cake pan and other decorations (like Harry Potter cake toppers) from a party store. Next, decorate a really cool Harry Potter cake.

*Lightning Bolt Cake: Prepare 1 round cake according to cake mix directions. Decorate this Harry Potter party cake by making a yellow lightning bolt on top of the cake with vanilla icing. (It can be tinted yellow with food coloring or frosting).