Hey guys, happy to be back to our normal blogging schedule after a little break! 😊
And there's no better way to kick things off, than to share one of the most magical parties we've ever designed for! Yes, it had to be a Harry Potter inspired birthday party, made all special and totally incredible by our blog contributor, Smita!
We were so excited to have been involved in the creation of the printables (which you can now download here!). Take a peek at the beyond awesome details as told by Smita below!
Harry Potter Inspired Birthday Party - Design & Decor
This party was truly magical! Although this party was a birthday party, you could easily incorporate these ideas into a Harry Potter themed Halloween party…or even a movie-watching party. Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them releases this November! Harry Potter Inspired Birthday Party - Invitations
The invitations for this party were Hogwarts acceptance letters, sent by “owl post”, complete with “H” wax seals and Hogwarts Express train tickets. The students were thrilled to receive these; some thought they were real acceptance letters. Lol!
Harry Potter Inspired Birthday Party - Diagon Alley
Upon arrival at the party, the “students” entered Diagon Alley. The first stop in Diagon Alley was Gringotts Wizarding Bank to pick up their gold so they could buy their school supplies. At Olivander’s, they picked four of their favorite wands, then they used the patented “Wand Selector”®™ to figure out which wand would pick them.
Each student then visited Madam Malkins’s Robes to buy their Hogwarts robe, Quality Quidditch Supplies to purchase a broomstick, and Flourish and Blotts to purchase a feather, writing quill. The guests also left messages for the birthday boy in a Monster Book of Monster’s guest book. We made the guest book from an old album and furry fabric that we bought at a craft store. Each student was given a Marauder’s Map, which was customized to show the layout of our home and labeled with various places from Harry Potter’s world. (The map was later used in the charms lesson and scavenger hunt; see below.) Before leaving Diagon Alley, the students took photos in the Platform 9 ¾ photo booth and the Prisoner of Azkaban photo booth.
They then left Diagon Alley through the Platform 9 ¾ concealed “brick wall” entryway. After a trip on the Hogwarts Express using the train ticket they received with their acceptance letter, they arrived at Hogwarts.
Harry Potter Inspired Birthday Party - The Sorting and Hogwarts Houses
Upon arrival at Hogwarts, the student entered the Great Hall and participated in a Sorting Ceremony. We used our cell phones and our Bluetooth AV system and speaker to project the “voice” of the Sorting Hat into the room. The kids loved interacting with the hat in this way and many were begging and pleading with the hat to be placed into one house or another.
Once sorted, every student received a house tie in the color of their house and I explained to them the house point system—good behavior would earn points and bad behavior would lose points for their house. We used glass beads to represent points and the teachers gave out and took away beads throughout the party. At the end of the party, the students from the house with the most points were awarded house cups.
Harry Potter Inspired Birthday Party - Honey Dukes Candy Shop and House-themed Dessert Table
After lessons were over, the students were allowed a trip to Hogsmead. The dessert table is always very popular, but this time, the Honey Dukes Candy Shop was the crowd favorite.
I took a bookcase I had and loaded it with home-made Chocolate Frogs, jelly beans from Party City re-packaged as Every Flavor Jelly Beans, and various other candy from Party City labeled as Pepper Imps, Acid Pops, Droobles Best Blowing Bubble Gum, and Fizzing Whizzbees.
The dessert table was themed around the four Hogwarts houses—Gryfinndor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin, with house banners representing each house and decorated with magical textbooks and cauldrons filled with dry ice. The birthday cake was topped with the words “Happee Birthdae Sohan” akin to the birthday cake Hagrid makes for Harry’s 11th birthday in the first book.
I made Sugar Quills with melted Jolly Rancher hard candy and Golden Snitches with Ferrero Roche chocolates. I also plated various store-bought chocolates and truffles as follows: salted caramel truffles topped with pop rocks became Exploding Bon Bons, chocolate pretzel bites became Cockroach Clusters, caramels with raisins became Fudge Flies, gummy worms became Jelly Slugs. The dessert table also contained house-themed cupcakes with fondant toppers and cookies (artistically designed and decorated by MJ Taboush), and Cauldron Cake cake pops (beautifully decorated and made by Fayes Cake Pops).
Harry Potter Inspired Birthday Party - The Great Hall and Hogwarts Grounds
For the party, we essentially transformed our home into Hogwarts—talk about magic! All the fabulous signage came from Etsy Shop, Printyca and the wonderful tabletop printables came from my dear friend at BirdsParty.com.
Our living room became the Great Hall, filled with the four house tables decorated in the house colors. I used fancy plastic tableware from Party City to complete the majestic place settings. We also had house banners representing each house and floating candles suspended by fishing string over the house tables.
The floating candles were flameless candles that I glued into paper tubes; I dripped glue gun down the sides of each tube to look like dripping wax. Throughout the space, I stacked magical textbooks—hardback books (mostly my old law text books!) covered with hand made, customized “dust jackets”.
We had great fun creating a potions display using old bottles and jars, labeled as various potions from the books. I also created a Hogwarts portrait gallery on one wall, although the portraits did not move. The powder room was decorated as Moaning Myrtle’s toilet and functioned as the Chamber of Secrets in the scavenger hunt game.
Our floating staircase was perfect to become the castle’s famous shifting stairs, so I set a portrait of the Fat Lady at the base of the stairs. The backyard became the Hogwarts grounds, complete with Quidditch field, Whomping Willow with a car stuck in it, the Dark Forest, and Aragog in his nest.
Harry Potter Inspired Birthday Party - The Three Broomsticks and Hogwarts Kitchen
Our wet bar become the Three Broomsticks, serving up Butter Beer, Pumpkin Juice and Gilly Water. The drink stirrer broomsticks were made using raffia and drink stirrers. The Hogwarts kitchen served up British fare--shepherd’s pie, fish and chips, scotch eggs—for the Great Feast at the end of the party.
Harry Potter Inspired Birthday Party - Party Activities & Lessons
The sorting was just the start. The real fun began when the students went to their lessons with their houses. Each house rotated through the following lessons:
a. Charms with Professor Flitwick
In Charms, the students used their Marauder’s Map to locate various plaques on the floor around the house and backyard. The children had to stand on each plaque and perform a spell: Augamenti (turned on the waterfall in the pool), Incendio (turned on the fireplace), Alohamora (opened and closed the garage door), and Lumos/Nox (turned the lights on and off). Thank goodness for remote controls! A fifth plaque, for the spell Wingardium Leviosa, proved a little more challenging. Contrary to what my son may think, even I can’t make things levitate or fly! So I gave them balloon (to create static) and various small, light objects and ask them to figure out how to make the items levitate.
b. Herbology with Madam Sprout
Herbology lesson involved designing and making a baby mandrake root, using air-dry clay, raffia “roots” and leaves.
c. Potions with Professor Snape
In Potions, the students used various household products (think vinegar, baking soda, powdered sugar, food coloring, pop rocks etc.) to make magical potions. I made potions booklets containing the “recipes” for each potion. I changed the names of the ingredients in the potions booklet to give everything a magical name. It was great fun watching them perform simple chemistry experiments with a magical twist.
d. Quidditch Practice with Madam (Professor) Hooch/Marauder’s Map Scavenger Hunt with Professor McGonagall
The fourth lesson was listed on the class schedule as Quidditch Practice with Madam Hooch, however, shortly after beginning the flying lessons, the lesson was interrupted by Professor McGonagall (me) asking the kids for their helping solving a mystery. I told them that one of their house members had been petrified and they needs to help me find the culprit using the clue left behind: a receipt from Eeylops Owl Emporium. The first clue led to many others, in a scavenger hunt game, ending in the Chamber of Secrets where they found the Hogwarts ID badge of the Professor who had committed the crime.
Harry Potter Inspired Birthday Party Games - Quidditch Match
After a great afternoon attending lessons and then feasting, the students ended their day with a Quidditch Match. Each student had a broomstick to fly on. We used a deflated basketball as the Quaffle, three foam balls as Bludgers, and a small foil ball with wings as the Snitch.
Harry Potter Inspired Birthday Party - Wrap up, Favors, Daily Prophet Thank You notes
We ended the party by counting up the house points and awarding the house cup. We took make believe to the next level with this party and by the end of the party, the kids were all “in role” and excited to see which house won. The students left the party with their robes, wands, quills, broom and marauder’s maps.
After such a magical party, normal thank you notes just wouldn’t do, so we published a front page of the Daily Prophet, containing photos and stories about events at the party and a personalized thank you from the birthday boy.
Harry Potter Inspired Birthday Party - Party Vendors
* Party styling: The Party Wall* Harry Potter Inspired Party Printables: Bird's Party
* Diagon Alley Signage: Printyca
* Photography: Kathie Tam
* Cake Topper letters, Cupcake toppers and sugar cookies: MJ Tabush Sweet Designs
* Cake pops: Fayes Cake Pops
* Tableware, hard candy, jelly beans, gumballs, lollipops: Party City
* Potions labels: Joana Penna
Click here to download your Harry Potter inspired birthday party printables as seen on this post!
This post appeared first on Bird's Party Blog
I have been looking all over for lightweight robes and can't find any! Where did these ones come from? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi there, try Oriental Trading or Amazon, I think they may still have them! :)
Deletewhere did you get the ties for each house?
ReplyDeleteSuch a cute party! Where did you find the ties for each house?
ReplyDelete