ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Harry Potter theme party puts a spell on kids

Updated on August 10, 2014
The birthday boy blows out the candles on his book cover inspired cake.
The birthday boy blows out the candles on his book cover inspired cake. | Source

For my son's eighth birthday, he wanted a Harry Potter theme. We determined the party would be structured as classes at Hogwarts so his friends could be divided into houses and, as best as we could, allow them to become wizards for the day.

Invitations

For the invitations, I created a letter from Hogwarts, similar to the one welcoming Harry his first year. The letter, on buff resume paper with green writing, read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall


Dear Mr. (Name),

We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited to a party for (my child) at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Guests will have the opportunity to take sample classes at Hogwarts. Wizarding robes are not required, but may be worn.
The party begins at one o'clock in the afternoon on December 3. Hogwarts will be disguised as the Muggle home at (our adress). We await your owl no later than November 30.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

I hand-delivered all invitations while the children were in school and asked caregivers who were home to tell the invited child an owl dropped the letter off for them.

A few parents emailed me their RSVP with the subject "owl."


The banners representing each house hang in the "Great Hall."
The banners representing each house hang in the "Great Hall." | Source

Preparation

Because I made many items for the party myself, preparation was a week-long process. I made:

  • Chocolate frogs, in boxes with wizard cards which I also made. For the frogs, I used a candy mold with frog designs (found at craft stores) in it and Dove chocolates. I found ideas for the wizard cards through the Harry Potter Wikipedia, and printed them on business card paper.
  • Banner decorations representing the four houses. I used brown grocery bags (free!) and painted the designs. To give them a grander appearance, I added streamer to the bottom of each.
  • Scarves for each child to identify them with a house. Fortunately, the fleece I used was on sale at 50% off, so I didn't spend as much as I could have on this project. I simply just cut the fleece into the number of scarves I needed. No sewing, nothing fancy.
  • Sorting hat to, um, sort the children into houses. I used a black witch hat from a party store and wrapped a ribbon around it, allowing extra ribbon to flow down along the sides. I strengthed the ribbon with duct tape, because the ribbon had a dual purpose. To make the hat talk, I put cell phone on speaker phone and placed inside the ribbon. My husband, on his phone and in another room, provided the voice for the hat.
  • Broomsticks and poster for games were made from things around the house. Baseball bats became broomsticks with partially shredded brown paper taped to the ends. A large paper shopping bag was cut to the size I needed for a revised popular party game.
  • While butterbeer was provided by a friend, I created pumpkin juice by blending pumpkin ice cream and milk into a milkshake.
  • Finally, I also made the cake.

A marshmallow turned into a monster in Transfiguration class.
A marshmallow turned into a monster in Transfiguration class. | Source
Pin the Star on Orion's Belt for Astronomy class.
Pin the Star on Orion's Belt for Astronomy class. | Source

Party

As each child arrived, they were greeted by an assortment of treats from Honeydukes to try. We had the chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans (Jelly Belly Kids Mix) and pretzel wands (pretzel sticks). We had movie extras playing in the background.

Once everyone was there, we started the sorting ceremony. The hat sung the song from the book, then, each child was called up to be sorted. The hat discussed each child's qualities before revealing in which house they belonged. When they got their house assignment, each child got the appropriate scarf.

After being sorted, all the houses went outside for "Flying Lessons." This was a relay race in which the children had to run from one hoop to another with a "broom" between their legs. The winning team got to chose which lesson they went to next.

Next, the houses split, with half the kids going to "Potions Class" and the other half going to "Transfiguration Class." Once the first round of classes concluded, the children switched classes.

In potions, the kids each had a cup of water and got to experiment with putting in different powders, from Pop Rocks to Jello. For transfiguration, each child was given a foam marshmallow and asked to turn it into a creature using pipe cleaners, pom poms, googly eyes and foam shapes.

Then, there was cake. The cake was a sheet cake which was made to look like the cover of the Sorcerer's Stone, only with my son on the cover instead of Harry. This was accomplished by painting a sugar sheet found at a craft store with gel food coloring. Food markers were used to draw the initial sketch. The gold lettering and snitch were drawn on last with gold-colored Wilton Sparkle Gel.

The last class with all students was held upstairs after the cake was consumed. It was upstairs because the class was Astronomy, which some of the kids thought was astrology at first. A poster of the constellation Orion hung on the wall, and I briefly explained what constellations were, and pointed out the names of the stars in Orion, like Bellatrix. I then pointed out one star was missing in the picture, and it was the kids' job to blindly place the star on the image-- to "Pin the Star on Orion's Belt" (played just like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey"). Stars were star labels, like the gold stars teachers put on tests.

It was then time for the children to go home. Each got a goody bag with a smal Harry Potter Lego set (also found on sale!), a couple "fun packs" of Every Flavour Beans and a chocolate frog. My son claims it was his best birthday ever.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)