Magical Harry Potter Party Ideas
This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. Read my full disclosure policy here.
These easy DIY Harry Potter birthday party ideas will have even the muggles wondering how you conjured up such an epic party. We have you covered with easy Harry Potter themed decorations, food, games and activities that everyone will enjoy.
If you love Harry Potter, check out these must-read tips for visiting Universal Studio’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter. And if you’re here because you like to party (you are my people!), you won’t want to miss these Minecraft birthday party ideas.
It’s October, which means HALLOWEEN– pretty much the perfect time to share the Harry Potter themed birthday party we had for our daughter earlier this summer. After such a rocky start in life, we can’t help but go a bit overboard when it comes to celebrating birthdays. Truth be told, while this party may seem over-the-top it was seriously one of the easiest parties I’ve ever hosted. It came together easily because I ordered a bunch of the party supplies online, so it only looks like I had magical intervention when in reality it was a piece of treacle tart (that’s like cake, I think?)
First up: these custom Daily Prophet invitations! We found this Etsy Shop who makes custom invites (similar) and used the following photo to create copies of the Daily Prophet that Abby wanted to give to each guest. She nailed the expression of an escaped Azkaban prisoner. Watch out, Hogwarts!
// custom Daily Prophet (similar) // wizard wand party favors (similar) //
Harry Potter Party Decorations
Let’s set the stage with the decorations, starting with the table. We covered it with purple fabric tablecloths and unrolled a gold glitter runner down the middle. Then, we set it up with Harry Potter themed plates and purple napkins. Gold silverware and plastic goblets rounded out the place setting.
// tablecloth // paper plates // plastic goblets (similar) // gold silverware // gold runner (similar)
Sprinkled along the runner were these gold keys from Amazon that we used in a party craft project (keep reading!) and every lantern and Harry Potter decoration we could find from the kids’ rooms.
Like this owl vase, filled with extra wands.
// owl vase (similar) // wizard wands (similar) //
We added these adorable Harry Potter glasses which made for some great photos of the kids!
// Harry Potter glasses // Hogwarts robe //
We set the scene around the house as well, using items we’ve collected over the years and from our trip to Universal Studios.
// stuffed owl toy //
We set up the favors in the entryway, with our letterboard, favor bags, and a few other magical touches to welcome guests.
// gray letterboard (similar) // Nimbus 2000 broom // stuffed owl //
Fairy lights make everything more whimsical, right? Good, ’cause we put them everywherrrrrrreeee.
(that’s a Marauder’s Map, of course… lots of mischief to manage.)
Even feathers from our craft stash weren’t safe. Accio, writing quills!
One of my favorite touches was the Moaning Myrtle stalking our bathroom mirror. We even kept her up for a few weeks afterwards to see who noticed. Now that I think about it, no one mentioned it– which makes me wonder if our friends just think we’re super creepy?!
Harry Potter Party Food & Drinks
What’s a party without food? While the main meal was pizza, we did add a few Hogwarts themed foods such as these Sorting Hat cupcakes from a local baker. Each cupcake had frosting inside, and once you bit into it you could see the color which represented your ‘house’: red for Gryffindor, yellow for Hufflepuff, purple for Ravenclaw… and you guessed it, green for Slytherin.
The ‘hats’ were hand sculpted from caramel.
The kids had so much fun biting into the cupcakes to see into which house they were sorted!
Though the birthday girl was a little disappointed she didn’t get into Slytherin. 😉
A Harry Potter gathering just wouldn’t be complete without Butter Beer. We took the idea up a notch and created Butter Beer floats. We used Butterscotch flavored soda and poured it slooooowwwwwly over a scoop of vanilla ice cream to create this gloriousness:
Here’s the ‘butterscotch beer’ soda we used to make the floats, I found it at a local grocery story called Earthfare:
Harry Potter Games & Activities
We had a bunch of games and crafts ready for the guests, and they breezed through them SO quickly that we ended up watching a little bit of the Sorcerer’s Stone movie at the end of the party! The first activity while the kids arrived was frame-making. I’d set out $1 wooden frames, tacky glue, and several craft supplies to match various themes if they wished:
The Mad Eye Moody Frame
The Hedwig Frame
The Luna Lovegood Frame
The Golden Snitch Frame
We also did a Sorcerer’s Stone hunt using red craft gemstones and gold drawstring organza bags. We hid the stones in our playroom prior to everyone arriving, and they were all found within .2 seconds. That was not a long lasting activity, ha! I’d suggest doing it outside and hiding them around the yard, and we would have done so ourselves if it hadn’t been July in North Carolina and approximately eleventy billion degrees.
Another fun craft were these key necklaces. There’s a scene in the first Harry Potter book with flying keys, and that sounded fun and a good way to reuse the table decorations. We didn’t have wings but this was a quick and easy craft so we went with it, though the astute HP fans did ask where the wings were. You can add little wings if you’d like, we kept it simple ’cause that’s how I roll.
// bulk gold keys //
We used a spool of gold ball chain and you can cut it to size and use connectors on each end to create a necklace. Here’s a similar product with precut chains if that’s easier.
The last activity was potion-making (using pure essential oils, of course!) The kids were allowed to choose the scents they loved the most for their very own ‘snoozing serum’. They pumped a carrier oil into the bottle and added calming oils like Lavender, Peace & Calming, or Valor.
// roller bottles // Snoozing Serum bottle labels //
We got the labels from this Etsy shop, and she sent these Harry Potter faces as a freebie and we were delighted!
Harry Potter Party Favors
To end the festivities, we decorated black kraft paper bags with gold lightening bolts (thank you, gold Sharpie!) and filled them with a few goodies. And in hindsight, we probably should have warned people about the boxes of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans we placed inside. OOOOPS. The favor bags also contained wands, and the kids put their Harry Potter glasses, Daily Prophets, and crafts from the party inside so they left with a full bag.
It was such a fun party, and believe it or not pretty low-key. As you can see, I ordered almost all the supplies online, and the rest was simple to whip up myself (like the favor bags and crafts.) Some of the kids even came dressed in Harry Potter costumes, which was super cute! This is probably the last themed party for my daughter as she’s about to enter the preteen years, so I’m giving myself grace for going a teeny, tiny, wee bit overboard.
Who, me?
Ahem. GUILTY as charged.
I did my best to link everything I purchased within the post, here’s a roundup of most of the party supplies to make it easy:
We hope you enjoyed this deep dive into our wizarding world of partying If you loved these Harry Potter party ideas, then it would be great to share them with your friends!
