FYI: if this is too long, let me know and I will shorten it. Thanks! My daughter wanted a Harry Potter birthday party when she turned six. I've gotta say - I had so many ideas, I had trouble trying to include everything! We were on a bit of tight budget (her party falls 3 weeks after her sister's birthday party, and is usually right around Easter), so I had to do as much as I could for as little as possible. I found a ton of ideas here and on other websites - it was just a matter of finding the right stuff for us. INVITATIONS: I started off making invitations. I tea-stained regular printer paper (Steep 1-2 teabags in 1 cup of hot water for about ten minutes, cool and pour into a cookie sheet. Lay the paper into the tea, then slide it out and let dry. HINT: make sure you dry the paper as flat as possible, so it will go through the printer easier.). I found a Harry Potter font and the Hogwarts crest and typed up a letter as if the child were being invited to go to a sample day at Hogwarts. It read: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry then "(child's name) Closet Under the Stairs (child's address)" then "Headmaster Albus Dumbledore Order of Merlin First Class Chief Warlock Supreme Mugwump International Confederacy of Wizards" then "Dear (child's name) We are pleased to announce that you have been accepted into the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for an elective spring session. Classes will be held on (date of party) in honor of the International Confed. of Prefects and Honorary Junior Mugwump (my daughter's name). There will be as many as four classes being held for this session. These classes may include but are not limited to: Potions Divinations Transfigurations and Care of Magical Creatures. Transportation to Hogwarts will be by train. Please be at King's Cross Station Gate 9 3/4 for your departure. Please be sure to arrive at the school no later than 1 PM as class schedules are on a strict timeline. The last class will end at approximately 4PM so make sure to set your remote broom starter for that time. Please dress appropriately. Capes and robes are optional. Be sure to bring your thinking caps! There will be a test at the end. Please RSVP by owl no later than ________. Send the owl to (my email address). If your owl is in the shop use your muggle phone to call (my phone number)." Then I signed my name and "Deputy Headmistress". I had sealed the invited w/ drippings from a red candle and then stamped w/ a letter H stamp from my scrap booking supplies (the invited were handed out rather than mailed so I didn't have to worry about folding them). DECORATIONS: decorations were actually pretty easy. I made House crests by enlarging 3 that I found online - Hogwarts Gryffindor and Ravenclaw then hung lengths of coordinating cloth at the end of my center stairway like heavy curtains and hot glued the crests to the cloths. I had four "classes" set up in four different areas of the house w/ tables and/or whatever else I would need for that class. I had silver and white star Mylar balloons from the dollar store tied to the backs of the chairs in my kitchen (location of the Grand Feast). I also had a tall stool set up in my front entryway w/ a witch's hat sitting on it (the Sorting Hat natch) and signs and arrows (hand-drawn w/ the class name and a picture description) pointing to each class hanging on the walls. Outside I had a huge poster board H (for Hogwarts) on my front door (complete w/ gold paint and plastic gems) and a signpost made of dowels and poster board reading King's Crossing Gate 9 ¾�. COSTUMES: like a lot of people on here I didn't have enough money to buy HP capes for every kid so I pulled out a witch's cape from an old Halloween costume and used that. As the kids arrived I had them pick a House badge from the Sorting Hat (Gryffindor or Ravenclaw) that I had made earlier. I pinned the badge to their shirts put the cape on them drew a HP scar on their forehead and gave them some cute HP glasses  (found at the dollar store) to wear while I took a picture w/ my digi camera. The cape and glasses were for pictures only. While I was waiting for kids to arrive I printed the photos for later. I had Chamber of Secrets playing I the living room for people to watch while waiting. I also gave each child a school folder that included a copy of the Daily Prophet that I had typed up (also done on tea-stained paper - I took the time to write out real HP stories like a real newspaper which no one read so I was a bit bummed out that I spent the time) a class schedule a welcoming letter from Prof. Dumbledore (on tea-stained paper) HP printables and trivia from online (to be used at a later class) and a class completion paper that had to be stamped by each teacher at the end of class to prove that the child had attended. I had also made up some pencil wands by tying one end of a string to a colorful feather and the other end to the post of a thumbtack. I stuck the thumbtack into the eraser of matching colorful pencils and had the kids choose a wand�. Since it was just past Easter I had gotten some green cloth and wire bucket/Easter baskets on clearance at Wal-Mart. They had bunnies on the front so I made brown and gold embroidered Hs out of felt and sewed them over the bunnies. These were the kids cauldrons and also used to carry their rewards from each class. SNACKS: I didn't have an actual meal (no time!) so I just had snacks for everyone to munch on. I had a table w/ a sign that said Honeydukes� and had bowls of different HP candies: Bertie Blott's Every Flavor Beans (Jelly Bellies) Dumbledore's Lemon Drops (lemon candies) Blood Pops (red lollipops) Fizzing Whizbees (pop rocks) Acid Pops (sour Lik-M-Aid) Drubble's Blowing Gum (gumballs) Licorice Wands (Twizzlers) and Exploding Chocolate Frogs (made w/ a frog chocolate mold and pop rocks). I also had magic soda. Before guests arrived I put a drop of food coloring at the bottom of each cup (solid colored cups work best). When I handed out the drinks I would drop a few ice cubes into the cup (carefully so as not to disturb the food coloring) then poured Sprite over the ice cubes. Soda goes in clear - then magically changes color once poured! I did different colors in each cup so every one was different. The kids loved seeing what color would happen next. I made a plate of treacle fudge fruit and veggie platters finger sandwiches and Stagnant Punch (mix Sprite white grape juice and lime sherbet - the sherbet melts and floats to the top of the punch. You could also pre-freeze colored ice cubes to float in the punch or use frozen pieces of real fruit). The cake was easy - just a 9x13 cake divided into four quarters by Hogwarts House colors and a big brown H in the center. We also had ice cream of course. GAMES and ACTIVITES: now here's the fun part - the classes! Like I said before the kids arrived and got their pictures taken. They picked out a wand and got a cauldron bucket. When all of the kids arrived I gathered them up and introduced myself as Deputy Headmistress Tracy. I handed them their folders (color coordinated w/ their House colors). I gave them time to rifle through them and find their schedules. I had kept a folder for myself that said Teacher's Manual - DO NOT TOUCH! that had all of the answers etc that I needed for the classes. I had no help (stinkin hubby and the stinkin baseball game) so I had to do all four classes by myself - all kids (regardless of House) were in the classes together. First class was Divinations w/ Prof. Trelawney. I wore big sunglasses w/ the lenses popped out (too dark w/ the lenses in but I wanted to wear glasses) and a bunch of Mardi Gras bead necklaces and I talked in a high pitched voice. I told them we were learning how to read tea leaves. I had taken tea bags and opened them up into cups earlier and set them up on my coffee table. The kids sat down on big pillows and each chose a cup. I poured hot water from a tea kettle into each cup and let the kids add sugar if they wanted. They were then instructed to stir the tea - 3 times clockwise 5 times counter clockwise etc. Then they each took a sip (or pretended to take a sip since they weren't used to drinking loose tea and thought it looked gross) then poured the rest into a empty bowl in the center of the coffee table. One at a time I read� their leaves left in the bottom of their cups. I had made up fortunes ahead of time and had them written in my folder. I would check my folder for the student name (to check it off as attending class and to find their fortune) and said them out loud. I tried to make them to go along w/ each kid's personality. They got a kick out of that. At the end of class I stamped their attendance sheet and each child got to pick a Divination's Ball which were made out of those hollow bent-twig balls w/ colored stones inside (both from the dollar store) to put inside their buckets. Next was Potions� w/ Prof. Snape at the table in my dining room. I threw my hair up under w black wig that my other daughter had used to dress up as Pokemon's Ash the previous Halloween and talked in a low gripey voice. We did a few science experiments that I had found online (instructions kept in my Teacher's Manual� - vinegar and baking soda in a soda bottle blows up a balloon a few drops of food coloring into warm milk and dish soap in a bowl makes the coloring dance on the surface of the milk) and then made Lava Lamps (fill half of a large Mason jar w/ water add 2-3 drops of food coloring and mix. Fill the rest of the jar w/ vegetable oil. Now drop TBSPs of salt into the jar - the salt will carry the oil down to the bottom then release it in small globs to float back up to the top. You can keep dropping salt in and keep it going for awhile). The Lava Lamps were for their buckets and they each got a stamp for attendance. Next - Care of Magical Creatures w/ Prof. Dumbledore (I just couldn't do Hagrid). I wore the Sorting Hat and tiny John Lennon-type glasses and asked the kids if they wanted some of my famous Lemon Drops. Back into the living room we go to do our HP printables and trivia contest. The kids sat on the floor and filled in everything w/ their wands/pencils. At the end of the trivia section I gave out little baggies w/ chocolate covered peanuts inside and a note attached that said Congratulations from Hedwig the Owl�. The kids went crazy over the owl poops from Hedwig. Last class was Transfigurations� w/ Prof. McGonagall. All I did was take off the glasses and talk in a high pitched voice. This happened in the kitchen. I told the kids that I was going to be transforming them into creatures by magic and the only way that they could be transformed back was if someone guessed what kind of creature they were. I had a list of animals in my folder so when I said the magic words I only had to whisper the creature name into the child's ear and they were off. We actually played this game twice they all liked it so much. It was actually pretty hard coming up w/ creatures that kids could act out and still be easy to guess. After this class they got picture frame kits to make at home along w/ the picture I had taken of them at the beginning of the party (kit from Wal-Mart that made 30 frames for $5.95) for their buckets. Afterwards Deputy Headmistress came back out to check their attendance sheets and if all four classes were stamped (or even if some forgot to get stamps at the end of class) they got a packet of HP collector's cards (bought off of Ebay) and a signed Diploma from Hogwarts. Then we had cake and ice cream for the Grand Feast and the kids got to pick at the candy from Honeydukes while my daughter opened her gifts. The kids got to take home their folders buckets and pencils and any candy from Honeydukes that they wanted. All in all it was a great party! A lot of work but total cost was less than $75 for everything! "