Are you having a hard time thinking of things to do for your Harry Potter extravaganza? Well, it's not too late to get help from an expert. I have coordinated 10 of these parties myself, and am excited to share my secrets with you. Listed below are things that I have done in my own parties and are effective to make any night Magical and fun.
Setting the Atmosphere
On the outside of my house door I put up wrapping paper that I bought with bricks on it. So, when the knocked it looked like they were coming in from the train station. On the outside of the door I hung up a sign that said, "Platform 9 ¾." When people came in through my mudroom I had a chair sitting there and had them sit down, and I placed a "Sorting hat" on there head. Now, you don't have to have the actual movie sorting hat to have fun, you can use a regular witches hat, or if you want to go all out, you can order the sorting hat online at Warner brothers or you can find it on ebay quite easily as well.
After the sorting I had the people sit at their house table in the "Great Hall," aka my dining room. I set up a few long tables and put a sign on each with their house sign. Inside of my home I made my own house flags with material I purchased inexpensively from Walmart. On the tables I had the food already sat out with the plates and silverware ready to go. I put color coordinating table clothes on for the corresponding houses.
During the party I played music from the movies that you can easily download from Itunes or buy at the store. Indoor decorations included candles that I purchased that used batteries. With fishing wire I suspended the candles from the ceiling so they looked like they were floating. I also hung up plastic pumpkins that I bought for Halloween. In the bathroom I made a recording of "Moaning Myrtle" play throughout the night off of my hidden tapedeck.
On my fireplace I cut out a picture of Sirus Black and lit a fire behind the glass. For all of my parties I try to set the mood from the actual book. I also have a punch bowl inside of a big black cauldron, potion bottles for party favors, and a house flag for everyone as parting gifts.
Menu
Butterbeer
There are a few different things that you can do for this. If you are having an adult party you can do what we did for this one. We just bought regular beer and took the labels off, and made our own. On my computer I printed off my own labels with "Hogshead" on them as well as the words butter beer. Everyone got a kick out of this and we had a great time hamming it up. If it is a kids party, then either hot apple cider will work or you can do barqs root beer in the bottles and put the homemade labels on it. The kids will enjoy your creativity.
Chicken
What we do every year is get game hens. In the movies you see all sorts of chicken legs as well as game hens on the table. We put two of these on each table and had chicken legs and wings marinated in different sauces.
Candy
What is a Harry Potter party without candy? This is the easy part, stores like Giant Eagle and Walmart, have the candy from the movie available. If you want more ideas on the cheaper side, you can buy a bag of pretzels, melt some vanilla and dip the ends of them in it, these make wands. Also, liquorish works. At Giant eagle they have Droobles bubble gum, (from the movie) as well as Acid Pops, and Bertie botts every flavor beans.
After Dinner
After dinner I started with a movie trivia game. We played Scene it, Harry Potter edition. During the game I asked random trivia questions to the players of the team and if they got the question right they got a little cauldron filled with candy. (Cauldrons can be purchased at the dollar store).
Throughout the game I went through with a trolley and asked if anyone wanted and candy or pumpkin pasties.
Trolley
During the party I used a tool cart as a trolley. You can use anything that you wish. This worked really well and everyone got a good laugh about it. I dressed up as the old lady in the movies that worked on the Hogwarts express and on the cart I had Liquorish wands, Pumpkin pasties ( miniature pumpkin pies), Droobles bubble gum, and Acid Pops. I asked everyone what they would like from the trolley.
After we were rested from the food we went outside for games.
Games
Quidditch
We took two pvc pipes and attached a hula hoop on the end for the poles. We played it like dodge ball and whoever had scored the most points through the hoops one. The team that one took home the house cup. We had a trophy made before hand that said house cup champions. You don't have to go this far but, it is fun. We took a picture of the winners with the trophy and have it hanging up in my house. The trophy stays in the cabinet and the picture is signed by all of the players.
Broom Race
We bought several brooms from the dollar store and raced them down our road. I recommend doing this if you are not drinking. Haha. Everyone still thinks there is something wrong with us.
Whatever you do with your party, have fun. Be creative. And, try to outdo yourself with each one. This year's party will have the maze from movie four. We are going to have a Goblet of fire made and we plan on giving it to the winner of the maze. Good luck.
