The Harry Potter books and films have enjoyed great popularity worldwide over the last 20 years and have won the hearts of children and adults. We have put together many ideas for the perfect Harry Potter birthday party for fans of the series, both young and old. Here you will find inspiration for suitable decorations, fun games and delicious recipes that will transport you and your guests to the most popular magical world.
Harry Potter party for children's birthdays
If your children are enthusiastic about magic, then you can plan the next birthday party with the Harry Potter theme. You can choose a single book or combine parts from the entire series. The plot in the first books is better suited for smaller children because Harry and his friends are still children there. However, most children have dreamed about their letter from Hogwarts at least once when reading the first book.
Invitation ideas
Every good themed party starts with an appropriate invitation that provides the most important information about the party, such as location, time and theme. However, the perfect invitation cards should also be designed in accordance with the motto and decorated as creatively as possible. For the Harry Potter party, you can write the invitations as letters from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry orsmall cardsof the Marauder. You can also find templates for the Hogwarts Express train ticket on the Internet, which also fits into a creative invitation.
Party Deco
If you have already sent out all the invitations for the party, you should now think about the decorations for the party. If you want to feel the atmosphere at the entrance, you can decorate the front door. A Hogwarts flag, suitcase, vintage broomsticks and a cage with a plush owl are all good ideas for suitable door decorations. Another creative idea would be to design the front door as the entrance to platform nine and three quarters.
Make your own platform nine and three quarter door
The entrance to platform nine and three quarters is usually a solid brick wall, through which wizards and witches go to the Hogwarts Express. You can decorate an old, white bed sheet or tablecloth like the brick wall using red paint and a sponge and hang it on the front door as a curtain.
Flying letters as decoration
If the Harry Potter birthday party is being celebrated in the apartment, then you can recreate the scene with the flying letters in the Privet Drive house. To do this you will need labeled envelopes and some thread to hang them from the ceiling. This decorative idea is perfect for the place in front of the fireplace or on the inside of the front door.
Snowy owl balloons
The owls are the mail carriers of the magical world, but are still popular pets for wizards and witches. For the Harry Potter party, you and the children can make beautiful snowy owls like Hedwig - Harry's owl. All you need are white balloons, black markers, some yarn and rolls of paper as letters.
Make the Nerhegeb mirror out of cardboard
If there is a large mirror in the party room, you can make a special frame for it and use it to make the Nerhegeb mirror yourself. This is a mirror that should show “Not your face but your heart desires”. The frame can be made out of cardboard and decorated with acrylic paint and hot glue.
Design the Great Hall
If you are celebrating a Harry Potter birthday in the evening, you can decorate the room with “flying” candles like in the Great Hall. Instead of buying the lights, you can make them yourself using empty toilet rolls and flameless candles. In addition to the lights, you will also need flags from the different houses in Hogwarts, which should be hung on the wall to make the room even more authentic.
Scary decoration ideas
For older children, you can also use some scary characters and magical creatures from the book in the Harry Potter party decorations. The spiders from Aragog's family, as well as a few dementors, can give the decoration a spooky touch and also make it suitable for a Halloween party.
Ideas for party food
The magical world of Harry Potter is filled with lots of amazing sweets, each sounding tastier than the other. For the party, you can prepare a special buffet with desserts inspired by these treats. However, there are no exact recipes for this, so you can let your creativity run wild when baking and decorating.
Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans
A quick idea for sweet snacks at the party are the so-called jelly beans. They are similar to the famous Bertie Botts beans of every flavor, which can really taste like anything in the novel. Simply fill a bowl with regular jelly beans and imagine them as the whizzing candies from the wizarding world.
Cauldron cake
The food truck vendor on the Hogwarts Express offers a variety of sweets and snacks that are popular among young witches and wizards. Desserts such as pumpkin pie, chocolate frog and treacle tart are perfect and will certainly be appreciated by real Potter fans. For example, you can prepare a cauldron cake yourself by decorating chocolate muffins or cupcakes to create the shape of a cauldron.
The Golden Snitch chocolates
However, if you don't want to prepare the desserts yourself, you can turn purchased snacks into Harry Potter items. You can transform simple chocolates with gold foil into the Golden Snitch by making small wings out of paper. Liquorice sticks are another popular snack at Express Hogwarts, so licorice sticks are another good idea for finger food at the birthday party.
Homemade snacks
If you need more ideas for party food, you can choose popular motifs from the novel series and use them to decorate the food. With croissant dough, for example, you can easily bake these little witch hats with nougat filling yourself.
Harry Potter drinks
In addition to sweets and desserts, you should think about suitable drinks for the party. You can either serve typical party drinks and name them with names from the magical world, or prepare some of the most famous drinks from the magical world yourself. Butterbeer,Eggnogor even fire whiskey is quite good, although pumpkin juice is best for children.
Make your own pumpkin juice
Pumpkin juice is a popular drink in the magical world and is perfect for a Harry Potter birthday party. To make pumpkin juice you need baked pumpkin or pumpkin puree mixed with apple juice. You can also refine the juice with cinnamon and honey.
The birthday cake is the highlight of every birthday party. You can either have a large oneCake with popular motifs from the bookHave it baked, or make a simpler version yourself. For example, you can decorate a simple chocolate cake as Hagrid's cake for Harry's 11th birthday. All you need is pink icing and green sugar writing, which you should use to label the cake with mistakes.
Costumes for the Harry Potter party
Along with the decorations and decorated snacks and drinks, you also need suitable costumes for a theme party. Possible ideas introduce people and characters from the magical world, as well as well-known magical creatures. Each person has important characteristics that you should consider for a good costume. To disguise yourself as Harry Potter, round-framed glasses, a magic wand and Gryffindor school uniform are important. The lightning-shaped scar on the forehead also plays a central role.
Costumes for adults
Costumes with this theme are not only suitable for a birthday party, but also for Halloween and carnival. Adults can dress up as Hogwarts students and professors, but also as Death Eaters and as Voldemort himself. However, be sure to ask other guests about their costumes to avoid duplication.
Costumes for children
The children like to dress up as Hogwarts students for a birthday party. The school uniforms consist of black wizard cloaks with the house-specific badge, as well as ties and scarves in the colors of the corresponding house. You can also make these items of clothing yourself for a costume by upgrading old clothes. Dressing up as Dobby the house elf, little owls or the baby Harry Potter with the scar are suitable for small children and babies.
Craft ideas for the Harry Potter party
You can also make the decorations for the birthday party yourself or with children. You can make the Golden Snitch out of golden Christmas balls and feathers and use it to decorate your apartment for the party. Glue two feathers as wings to each of the balls using the hot glue gun and the beautiful decoration is ready.
Hogwarts ties and crests as party favors
If you would like to prepare party favors, you can make ties and coats of arms from the different houses and give them to the children. A great idea would be to have an assignment ceremony at the party and assign each child to one of the four houses. You can also make the sorting hat out of paper or papier-mâché.
DIY magic wands
And what is a wizard without his wand? You can make beautiful magic wands for the birthday party from large chopsticks. To create the handles of the sticks, you can decorate them with the hot glue gun. When the glue is already dry, the wands should be painted, for example with spray paint. Use different shades of brown to make the wands look different from each other.
Indoor party games for kids
Birthday parties for kids will be much more fun if you come up with different games for the little ones. Instead of giving finished ties and coats of arms to the children, you can organize a game in which the children should paint them themselves. Another great idea would be to create a potions class where children can do various simple experiments with the help of adults.
Outdoor games
If the birthday takes place outdoors, you can create a Quidditch game. This is the most famous sport in the world of Harry Potter and is played in the air on broomsticks. In the garden you can make goal rings out of hula hoops and play the fun game with the party guests. You can use any game ball as a Quidditch ball and even come up with your own game rules.
