My daughter was turning 8 and wanted to have a Harry Potter birthday party.
We do a theme party every year, but I thought this one might be tricky because I would have to cater Harry Potter to ten 8-year-old girls. With some outside help and lots of ideas from this sight (thank you), in the end it turned out to be one of the most fun and well pulled off parties we've had to date. ~*~*~INVITATIONS~*~*~ I used wording from one of the ideas submitted to this site for the invitations. I printed them on light brown cardstock and tore the edges to make them look a bit like parchment. I then folded them and placed them in envelopes with Hogwarts seals (printed the Hogwart's crest on some small labels) on the envelopes and addressed them with larger labels that had each child's name and then under their names it said -- Cupboard under the stairs finished with their address. We hand delivered some and sent the others in the mail. Here is what the invitation itself entailed. The Hogwarts crest centered at the top followed by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Headmaster Albus Dumbledore - Order of Merlin First Class, Grand Sorcerer and Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump International Confederation of Wizards Dear (Child's Name), We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for special mid-term classes in Potions, Charms, Divination and Defense against the Dark Arts. There will also be a special Birthday Feast in honor of Gryffindor House's newest Head Girl/Boy, (Birthday Child). The birthday feast will feature treats from Honeyduke's Sweete Shoppe in Hogsmeade. Classes will begin at the stroke of 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon on (Date of Party). Please take the Hogwarts Express train to our address, currently disguised as a Muggle home at (Address). There you will find the magical door visible only to Hogwarts students, friends and families. The password is Balderdash. The surrounding area is well-protected by Memory Charms, so it will be safe to practice magic indoors and outdoors, weather permitting. Please dress in your favorite wizard clothing. If you are unable to respond by Owl, please reply via the Muggle telephony system at (Telephone Numbe) with a yes or no response. We look forward to your arrival at Hogwarts. Sincerely, (Your Name Here) Deputy Headmistress of Frolic and Feasts Hogwarts Academy ~*~*~DECORATIONS:~*~*~ Some decorations that we had were a sign in front of the house by the trees in the yard that said Forbidden Forest. The front door that was decorated as Platform 9 with a sign and the door was covered with paper that I had printed a brick pattern on it. A picture of Moaning Myrtle on the toilet in the bathroom, w/ a sign on the mirror that said Myrtle was here. Different signs for Hogsmeade shoppes up around the Honeyduke's Sweet Shoppe on the porch. Silver stars strung from the ceiling. Red, blue, green and yellow streamers. Red, blue, green, yellow, silver and gold balloons on the floor in the living room. I also had a large book covered in paper and labeled as a Potions book on the table as a prop for Potions class. ~*~*~THE PARTY~*~*~ The guests arrived at. They were asked the password (which had been indicated on the invitation most of them didn't know it). Then they were led into the Living Room to wait for the other guests to arrive. While they were waiting, I had the Goblet of Fire playing on the TV and a Harry Potter word search for them to do. Once they had all arrived they were each given handbooks for their day of special classes. Handbooks: I printed the handbooks in Word using the page setup of Book Fold. They were 6 pages long of half sheet pages. Each handbook had a cover that had each guests name and the Hogwarts crest. The first 3 pages included a short welcome and let them know that they would need the handbooks for their special mid-term classes today. Then for fun it had a short history of Hogwarts which I found the information for on the internet. It had House information & Class & Teacher information. The next pages were dedicated to the special mid-term classes. There was a Potions section which listed out the different Potions that they could choose from to make (more detail under Potion class explanation), the Charms section listed the different charms they would see today, and what the Divination and Defense Against the Dark Arts class would entail. ~*~*~ACTIVITIES~*~*~ Sorting: After every one had a handbook, we sorted them into houses. I had preprinted badges with a blank space for a name on them that each had a House crest on them and were strung on some yarn. The Sorting Hat was a paper bag with the facial features (printed from a picture on the internet) glued on it. As they wore the hat, my brother (who was dressed a Hagrid) drew a badge out and we wrote their name on it and they wore it around their necks. Wand Making: I had bought wooden dowels for each girl and then had different things for them to decorate the wands with. Since they were all girls, we had ribbon, glitter, heart and star shaped confetti, small silk flowers and feathers (all very inexpensive at the craft store). Each girl made their own wand with the help of me and my adult helpers using hot glue guns. Charms: While my brother and sister-in-law were cleaning up from wand making and getting ready for Potions, we all went into the living room for Charms class. I was the teacher for Charms class and I did a small magic show for them and taught them a couple tricks. The tricks I did were as follows (you can find the directions for all these tricks on the internet): Wingardium Leviosa summoning charm (floating coin trick) Disapero make objects disappear (disappearing coin trick) Legilimens Mind reading (black magic trick need a friend/accomplice, I used my daughter) Aprecium make something that is invisible visible again (lemon juice invisible ink trick) Levicorus levitating charm (made all their arms levitate by me hold them down at their sides while they tried very hard to lift them for 1 minute. Then I told them to relax and I let go their arms will involuntarily raise) Potions: Next we were back the Great Hall for Potions class. Each girl was told that she needed to choose which potion she was making from the list in their handbooks. Here is the list (with ingredients): Amortentia very strong love potion oFlower kernels oUnicorn nectar oUnicorn dust oDittany oFairy soil o Asphodel Babbling Beverage this potion makes the drinker babble (talk) a lot and speak nonsense oBeetle eyes o Lizard slime oStinking pond water oAsphodel oDittany oBat liver Confusion Concoction this potion causes the drinker to be confused for several hours oLizard slime oFlower kernels oUnicorn dust oDittany oWriggly bloodworms oUnicorn nectar Felixelicis €" this i potion that makes the drinker very lucky oGoblin sweat oAsphodel oKnotwood oUnicorn nectar oDittany oBeetle eyes Sleeping Draught this potion makes the drinker sleep oBat liver oWriggly bloodworms oLatent tonic oStinking pond water oFairy soil oDittany They were then given a baby food jar and sat at the table. Each ingredient above was on the table and labeled. They then, with the adult help, went to making their potions. Some fizzed, some stunk, some smelled good, some changed colors a couple times. They all shrieked and ooohed and ahhhed throughout this class. It was my daughter's favorite. Here is what I used for ingredients, this could easily be altered: Lizard Slime green jello/jelly Beetle Eyes poppy seeds Unicorn Dust baking soda Bat Liver chopped mushrooms (canned) Wriggly Bloodworms cooked spaghetti in reddish-pink water €Latent tonic dark purple water (food colored) Stinking Pond Water vinegar Dittany powdered colored candy Flower kernels candy sprinkles €Unicorn nectar apple juice Fairy soil brown sugar Goblin Sweat mustard & water Asphodel powdered sugar Knotwood diced almonds Divination: For divination we made paper fortune tellers, with pre-printed fortunes. To get instructions on how to make these search the internet for paper fortune tellers or cootie catchers. These are the fortunes we used. 1. A Basilisk (snake like monster) will escape and hide in your plumbing. Beware long baths. 2. Congratulations! You will be drafted as the next Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. 3. Oh no! Due to a Transfiguration error, you will spend several weeks as a pumpkin. 4. Way to go! During Astronomy class, you will discover a new planet which will be named for you. 5. Watch out! You will be stampeded by a herd of raging Hippogriffs. 6. You will fall in love with a Centaur and move to a tree house in the Forbidden Forest 7. The Weasley brothers will hire you to test their new joke shop products. You will never be the same! 8. You will live a very long life, but as a werewolf. Beware of full moons! Oooooooowwwww. ~*~*~GAMES~*~*~ Defense Against the Dark Arts. We played a game called the Basilisk Stare. I made cards on the computer that had picture and short descriptions of creatures or animals from the stories. I used the following creatures: 1. Basilisk the deadly serpent with lethal breathe and glance, 2. Buckbeak Sirius Black's hippogriff, 3. Crookshanks - Hermione Granger's cat, 4. Dobby The House Elf that Harry frees from the Malfoy's, 5. Fawkes Dumbledore's pet phoenix, 6. Grawp Hagrid's Giant brother, 7. Hungarian Horntail the dragon Harry faces in the Triwizard Tournament, 8. Hedwig Harry Potter's pet owl, 9. Murcus the Mercheiftaness of the Black Lake, 10. Scabbers Ron Weasley's pet rat, 11. Thestral the creature that pulls the coaches to Hogwarts. The game went like this: Each guest drew one card, peeked at it and then hid it. Whoever drew the card with the Basilisk on it was the Basilisk, or IT. The children all stared into each others eyes. The Basilisk blinked both eyes at its victims, who then died (fell over however dramatically they chose-indicating they were dead). When someone who had not been killed yet was able to figure out the Basilisk's identity, they won a prize and the game started over. ~*~*~COSTUMES~*~*~ My daughter was dressed as Hermione. My mom had bought her an official Gryffindor robe and we put lots of inch around braids all over her head the night before while her hair was wet, so when we took out the braids in the morning and brushed her hair it resembled the poofy hair of Hermione. My sister-in-law and I were dressed as witches. The invitations had requested that the guests come in their favorite wizard clothing and many of them did come in costume which was fun! ~*~*~PARTY SNACKS / CAKE & FAVORS~*~*~ In the Great Hall (kitchen) I had the punch and cake. The punch was pumpkin juice which I made with orange sherbet, sprite and ginger ale. But the real appeal of the pumpkin juice was the dry ice effect. I bought 2 lbs of dry ice and kept that punch bowl steaming, fizzing and bubbling throughout the entire party. This was one of the best effects of the entire party. The girls raved about it. I didn't want to buy a cake so I made a regular 9 x 13 cake and frosted it white. Then we used yellow decorating frosting to draw a lightning bolt on it. At the end of the party, each girl was given a small sandwich baggie to fill with treats from Honeydukes Sweet Shoppe. Each bowl was labeled and they were allowed to take from every bowl (with adult supervision so they didn't take too much. These were the treats we had: 1. Droobles Best Blowing Gum bubble gum, 2. Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans jelly beans, 3. Dumbledore's Lemon Drops lemon drops, 4. Owl Pellets Chocolate covered peanuts, 5. Ten Ton Tongue Taffy Salt Water Taffy, 6. Whizzing Worms gummy worms, 7. Witches Teeth Candy Corn The treat bags went inside their goodie bags that had their wands, handbooks, badges and any prize they may have won. It turned out to be a great party and we had so much fun putting it on!! I hope your Harry Potter birthday party goes great!!
