Harry Potter: The best ideas for your theme party

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Maybe you're like me: you're still eagerly awaiting your invitation to Hogwarts. Because one thing is certain - if you've ever been a Harry Potter fan, you'll stay that way forever. If you're starting to run out of patience, you can take fate into your own hands and bring the magic of Hogwarts into your own four walls -with a Harry Potter party!

In my circle of friends, theme parties like this have long been a tradition. And yes, we do this as adults. Some would call it childish, but I prefer to call it “creative.” There are no limits to your imagination, especially at a Harry Potter-style Halloween party.

By the way, there is a perfect excuse for those who have children who are just as crazy about the magical world: simply make your next children's birthday party themed Harry Potter - and you're on the safe side.

If you're missing ideas about what a Harry Potter party could look like in detail, you've come to the right place. With my concentrated Potterhead party knowledge, I'll show you the best DIY tips - from invitations to costumes and decorations to magical games and recipes.

Important:You don't have to implement all of the suggestions. There should be enough time to chat and joke around between games and other program items. If you completely exhaust yourself planning, in the worst case scenario you will end up too exhausted to be able to enjoy your own party.

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1. Harry Potter Party Idea: The Invitation

This is essential at a Harry Potter partyInvitation with official Hogwarts logo(from the Internet). In the best case scenario, you write letters in the classic way with the place, date and time. Use vintage stationery and seal the envelope with candle wax and Hogwarts seal stamp(here on Amazon)*. If you want to take it to the extreme, make a ticket for the Hogwarts Express and put it in the envelope.

Tipp:To make DIY stationery, you can crumple up regular paper and dip it in coffee. The yellow-brownish color settles in the folds and makes the paper appear years old.

>A set of Harry Potter stationery and envelopes is available here on Amazon.*

Only if youreallyIf you don't have time to send (owl) mail to all your friends in time, you can exceptionally send out a digital invitation to Hogwarts. Of course it's cheaper. And easier. And faster. However, an email or WhatsApp message has significantly less magic than a handwritten letter from Professor McGonagall.

Important:When inviting, don't forget to make your guests aware of the costume they want. If you like, you can add a note that entering the magic school is only permitted with your own magic wand. The more elaborate the costume is, the more advance notice you should give the invitation. It should arrive at least a week before the party.

2. Harry Potter Party Idea: The Costume

A Harry Potter party without a costume is only half as much fun.The most important utensil is the magic wand.You can easily make one out of a twig, pencil or chopsticks. You can use a hot glue gun to customize the handle of the DIY magic wand. You can also use beads or strings to decorate. Then you color the stick black, white or brown.

Tipp:After painting, dab the homemade wand with metallic acrylic paint in silver or gold. This makes the highlights stand out better and the rod appears more three-dimensional.

Tip for a child’s birthday party:Instead of each child bringing their own wand, you can include a trip to Ollivander's wand shop in the party program. To do this, blindfold the children and let them take out their magic wands (which you made beforehand) one after the other. As is well known, the staff chooses the magician and not the other way around.

Also nice: Let each child choose a funny wizard name that they have to listen to all the time.

The ideal Harry Potter costume is, of course, to dress up as one of Harry's closest friends. In addition to Ron Weasly, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood and Co., the teachers at Hogwarts are also popular. The costumes of Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape are the most recognizable.

Whoever chooses the dark side of the forcecan dress up as Voldemort, Bellatrix Lestrange or a common Death Eater. Draco Malfoy or other Slytherin students are also a good costume idea as Harry's adversary.

  • Dobby
  • Hagrid with a pink stick umbrella
  • Patronus (as a white deer with a chain of lights)
  • Fawkes, Dumbledores Phoenix
  • Hedwig, Harry's owl
  • Moaning Myrtle (with toilet seat around neck)
  • Fat Lady (from Gryffindor dormitory)
  • Peeves the poltergeist
  • Caretaker Filch (with cat “Mrs. Norris”)
  • Golden snitch
  • Old times
  • Dementor
  • Professor Umbridge
  • Professor Trelawney
  • Professor Quirrell (mit „Voldemort“-Turban)
  • Rita Kimmkorn
  • Fleur Delacour
  • Auror Alastor Moody

3. Harry Potter party idea: The decorations

With the right decoration you can make your Harry Potter party stand out from a normal fantasy theme party.First decide on a location.It doesn't have to be Hogwarts. Dark settings such as Slytherin's dungeons, Azkaban or the Forbidden Forest are suitable for Halloween. It becomes magical with plants and mandrakes in the look of Professor Sprout's greenhouse.

If you don't want to commit, you can combine individual decorative elements from the different settings. For example, a printed curtain is suitable for entryTransition to the secret railway track 9 3/4marked. To do this, simply dip a sponge in red paint and dab it on an old bed sheet. Your guests gain access through a slot in the middle.

When it comes to Harry Potter decorations, it's the details that will put a smile on your guests' faces throughout your home. Be it a row of artificial spiders from Aragog's family running across the window sill, a photo of the moaning Myrtle under the toilet seat or the bloody warning on the mirror that the “Chamber of Secrets” has been opened.

A literal highlightthe floating candles from the Great Hallat Hogwarts. These can be easily made with empty toilet paper rolls and LED tea lights: Drip the top edge of the roll with glue from the hot glue gun to imitate wax stains. Then paint the toilet roll white, stick the tea light into it and let the “candle” dangle from the ceiling on transparent nylon threads.

Alternatively or in addition to the magical candle decorations, you can hang unopened envelopes with the Hogwarts seal or flying keys from the first volume on the ceiling. You can get a set of antique-looking decorative keysorder here from Amazon.* Glue “wings” made of paper or cellophane bows to it and the Harry Potter decoration is ready.

More decoration ideas for the Harry Potter party:

  • framed copies with pictures of the Fat Lady or Dumbledore
  • floating witch hats
  • Mirror Nerhe Building
  • Signpost with locations from Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley
  • Banner with the emblems of the four houses
  • white helium balloons with painted owls
  • Printed flyers with escapees from Azkaban
  • “Monster book” covered in fur
  • Sock holder to free house elves
  • Witch's broom (floating or not)

Purchased costumes or fan items naturally look particularly authentic, but they come at a price. Not to mention the fact that it's a lot of fun to think up and make your own decorations.

4. Harry-Potter-Party-Idee: Das Buffet

An essential part of the party decoration is the buffet. Imaginatively decorated food and drinks are half the battle. Instead of making everything yourself, you can ask your friends to bring a few snacks or desserts here and there. Good coordination is important so that you don't end up with everything twice.

Also read:Halloween buffet: decoration ideas for your scary finger food

When you eat Harry Potter, you can get culinary inspiration from the book and film. So for your birthday there isChocolate cake with pink strawberry icingand green sugar writing (and misspellings) like Hagrid gave to Harry in the first volume. Or you can opt for a monster book-style cake. With edible sugar eyes and chocolate icing.

As a recipe:

With matching Harry Potter shapes(here on Amazon)* Cookies and biscuits can be easily cut out.A suitable name is usually enough.For chocolate frogs, simply make frog-shaped chocolates, jelly beans pass for “Bertie Botts beans” thanks to the different flavors, and Rochers with paper wings become the golden snitch.

> In “The Unofficial Harry Potter Cooking and Baking Book” by food blogger Patrick Rosenthal you will find 100 fantastic recipes for a top-class Harry Potter menu!You can find the cookbook on Amazon here.*

As drinks areButterbeer and mud punch as a “polyjuice drink”Duty. For adults there is “Felix Felicis”.. Serves theand non-alcoholic drinks as potions in crystal bottles or glass flasks. For decoration, you can also fill the drinks into test tubes and present them in a cauldron with smoking dry ice - but to be on the safe side, only in the presence of an adult.

Reading material:

Tipp:You can make mixing cocktails playful with laminated recipe instructions. As an alchemical “magic potion theory”, the whole thing becomes a separate item on the program at your Harry Potter party – also with blind tasting and points awarded for the best mixture.

5. Harry Potter Party Idea: The Games

While we're on the topic of entertainment. If you're going to all the trouble with decorations, food and costumes, the theme party shouldn't be over in just two hours. But the longer you sit together, the quicker boredom can arise. Funny Harry Potter games help against this - not only, but especially at children's birthday parties.

If you take the motto seriously, start by assigning the guests to the four Hogwarts houses:Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff. In return, everyone gets to wear the sorting hat once. You can simply put on a hat for this. To draw lots for the houses, you can draw old-school slips of paper.

The assignment should create four teams of equal size. The members compete against each other in the following games and try to collect points for their house. This way, guests mix more, so everyone comes into contact with each other.

A Harry Potter photo box is a hit with young and old alike.It's easy to make yourself. Kind of in the style of the “who saw this magician” frame(here on Amazon)*. All you need is construction paper in A2 format, a permanent painter and a few calligraphy skills. Now every guest can have their photo taken as an escaped Azkaban convict.

At a Harry Potter party for adults, it's obvious to have oneBeer-Pong-Station als Quidditchfeldto build. Here, of course, with the twist that the opposing teams have to get their table tennis ball through one of the three rings like in Quidditch. As if that wasn't tricky enough, the ball should then land in one of the lined up cups (with beer).

As with normal beer pong, the opponent must drink the beer cup that is thrown down. Then the cup comes out of the game. The team that hits all of the opposing team's cups first wins.

Tipp:As a child-friendly beer pong variant, you can fill the cups with lemonade - or let the little ones throw cups just for fun.

A hit at Harry Potter children's birthday partiesThings to make yourself and take with you.This could be a “herbalism” unit in which the kids practice making mandrake crafts. Either with playdough, polymer clay, clay or edible marzipan - perfect to decorate a mole cake.

Or you can give them animal-shaped ribbons and gemstones so everyone can make their own Patronus bracelet. So you have created a beautiful party bag.

Another beautiful one:Eat chocolate quickly.In Harry Potter style, you can make chocolate keys or other shapes and hang them on a line. Now the children have to try to eat the treat floating above them without using their hands.

More ideas for Harry Potter party games:

1. Treasure hunt:

Make one or more golden snitches (for example from table tennis balls or rochers painted gold) and hide them around the apartment. Then the Easter egg… er, snitch hunt can begin. Whoever finds the snitch gets a point or another reward.

2. The Seven Horcruxes:You hide seven rolls of paper throughout the apartment with tasks that are intended to destroy one of Voldemort's seven Horcruxes. A challenge can be challenging another magician to a duel. Whoever runs out of spells first loses. The winning house gets valuable points for the house victory.

3. Knowledge test:Open one of the Harry Potter novels at random and quote 1-2 sentences from it. The team that first guesses the correct context of the passage being read gets the point. You can also prepare a quiz about the books and films and test your friends' nerd knowledge.

4. Taste sample:Yes, they exist: real “Bertie Botts beans” with the craziest flavors(here on Amazon)*. Let your friends try it and give points if they correctly guess the “sausage”, “vomit” and grass taste.

5. Fortune telling:Casting lead is just one? Nope. But when making oracles, you should rather pour liquid candle wax into the water instead of lead, which is harmful to your health. Alternatively you canbake with your own messages. Adults can also try to read their own future from the shape of the beer foam.

> You can discover a number of Harry Potter games here on Amazon.*

Tipp:If you don't want to come up with games yourself, you can serve up classic board games in the Harry Potter edition. In addition to “Trivial Pursuit” and “Scrabble”, I would particularly like to highlight the Harry Potter “Cluedo”. By the way, it's also a great gift idea for the birthday child.

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With this in mind: I hope I was able to inspire you to have a Harry Potter party for adults or children, and I hope you have a lot of fun implementing it!

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