So, we just recently pulled off a pretty stellar Harry Potter birthday for our 10-year old that was praised several times by her friends, including a comment I overheard, “This is the most awesome party ever.” The best part is that we didn’t end up buying a bunch of overpriced junk to make it work either.
A Homemade Harry Potter Birthday Theme
The trick to a great do it yourself Harry Potter birthday party is knowing what parts of the movies and books to use for your party theme. Obviously, it would be really cool if you could have flying brooms, and if you pull that off, please let me know how. But, since flying and spells are pretty tricky for us Muggles, there are other things that work out great.
Harry Potter Music
This one is easy. Grab the Harry Potter soundtrack on DVD, or plug your Phone in somewhere. Set the music to background volume. It just gives a nice Harry Potter feel to your party.
Harry Potter Lights
Floating candles like in the Great Dining Hall at Hogwarts would be awesome. I’ve seem something rigged up with thin wire so it looks like they are floating, but we found that stringing up small strings of Christmas style white lights made a really nice Great Hall effect for our birthday party.
Harry Potter Chocolate Frogs
I think you can actually buy these if you can find them. But, if not, what you can buy a chocolate frog mold. The mold is just a piece of plastic with frog-shaped wells. You fill the wells with chocolate and Bam! chocolate frogs.
One tip, don’t screw around when it comes to the chocolate. Get the special melting chocolate. It not only melts easy, but it solidifies easy and without cracking or getting fragile. Incidentally, chocolate frogs come in various colors, so you can get clever. Our 10-year old wanted some blue ones.
You can put these on the side of the cake, or as a topper on cupcakes or whatever matches your birthday party.
Harry Potter Wands
Instead of a goodie bag, how about sending each kiddo home with their very own Harry Potter (style) wand. They sell Harry Potter wands, but they are probably a bit much to be giving out to each child that attends your kid’s Harry Potter theme birthday.
Up on Etsy we found this shop that sells unique Harry Pottery style wands. They come sanded but unpainted. Voila! Instant birthday craft. We setup a painting station and each kiddo got a wand and the chance to paint.
Harry Potter Cards
They appear only briefly in the movie, but there are Harry Potter wizard trading cards that come with the cards. You can buy them online, or take pictures and print the kids on their own wizard trading cards. Each kiddo gets to pick a house and then you print some info on the back.
Jane Smith – Slitherin – Born 2006
Harry Potter Jewelry
Believe it or not, you can get 9 different Harry Potter necklaces for less than $15. Divvy them out one each and that plus a freshly painted wand makes for a pretty decent birthday attendee gift.
Harry Potter Movie
Pick your kiddo’s favorite movie from the Harry Potter series and throw in on after cake. Watch them all sit there holding their wands and wearing their necklaces while they watch the movie.
All in all, it wasn’t really that much work, and the kids had lots of fun without a bunch of cheesy cardboard Harry Potter stuff.