Do you love themed parties!? This Harry Potter themed party can be thrown for any occasion! Whether it is for a HP Lovers Birthday or a Halloween Party. This Harry Potter theme party is a must for any Harry Potter lover out there.
My Sister in Law had a big birthday milestone last year and she is a Harry Potter fan. I asked her Husband if we could throw her a Harry Potter Themed Surprise Party and he said yes, although I don’t think he knew what he was getting into.
I was inspired and determined after seeing all these really cool ideas on Pinterest. With the help of a lot of family members and friends we threw her an epic Harry Potter Theme Party and we did an AMAZING job.
Yes I am tooting our own horn because this party was a lot of work and took a lot of hours crafting stuff together. When looking back at the pictures I still cannot believe how cool it looked and we got to throw a party like this.
My Sister in Law said they left the house decorated for days after the party. If you are going set up as many decorations as we did make sure you have an amazing crew to help you set up and hours, I mean hours to spare to get everything ready.
My Mother in law took my Sister in law (her daughter, AKA the Birthday girl in this story) shopping for her Birthday which is how we got the house to ourselves all day.
This party was a commitment but worth every minute especially when we saw the surprise on my Sister in Law’s face when she walked into her house. There is no way we could have pulled this off without the help of friends and family!
Potion Bottles – So simple to do and is a must for a Harry Potter Party or an easy Halloween decoration. You do not even need this many, just a few would do if you do not have the time to make as many as I did.
Almost all of the bottles were bought at Hobby Lobby (tip wait until glassware goes on sale, ask an employee about rotation of sale items). For the fonts I downloaded some Harry Potter fonts just by googling “Harry Potter Fonts” .
I printed names of potions on regular paper, then we made it look old by soaking it in tea on a baking sheet and then baked in the oven at 200 until dry. I cut out the potion names and then burned the edges put them on the bottles with double-sided tape.
Lastly I filled each bottle at a different level with water and dropped food coloring in. Poof, you have Potion Bottles!
Add a cauldron and some dry ice to make it look even more dramatic like we did above! Totally a friends idea with the dry ice and it added the perfect effect! Potion bottles included Unicorn Blood, Elixir of Life, Polyjuice, Felix Felicis, just to name a few.
Floating Candles – This was probably the most time-consuming thing I made for sure! Plus hanging them up was no easy task for my husband and his Dad which were given the job. I found instructions on Pinterest and in all honesty, it is what started the idea of the party.
All of this can be found on my Harry Potter Board on Pinterest which I finally unlocked over a year after the party (it was a surprise so I had to keep it a secret). But basically we asked everyone to keep paper towel and toilet paper rolls so we could make them into floating candles.
After gathering we used hot glue guns to make the “wax drippings” on the rolls by running the hot glue gun up and down like a candle dripping wax, then spray painted them all white. After they dried we traced the bottom of the roll to a piece of white paper then cut it out and taped to the bottom of each roll.
To make them hang from the ceiling, we cut very long strings of fishing line, measure first to see how long you need to cut by making a “trial one” and hang from the ceiling. Use that as your guide to how long they need to be, it does not have to be exact it will look fine if they are a little shorter of longer.
Cut all your fishing line strings first then on the inside of the roll at the opened top (where the battery operated tea lit candle will go) follow inside edge with hot glue gun around the entire roll (just along the inside edge) then add fishing line while hot.
This makes a little “holder” for the tea lit candle to sit in- you will have to figure out how much hot glue to use by trying to put a candle in. Tip – Make sure to put a candle in each one so you know it fits OK and does not fall out. We made these a few weeks before the party, then finished up a few days before. Hang from ceiling with clear push pins. Add tea lit candles as you hang up so you can turn them on.
Harry Potter Hogwarts School Invitations Flying out of Fireplace – If you are a Harry Potter fan you know the scene here! Harry’s house gets bombarded with envelopes to his school that his family was keeping from him.
My brother-in-law found the Harry Potter wax envelope sealer kit and I bought a box of white envelopes. My mom has amazing handwriting so I had her write the address on a bunch of envelopes.
Then we strung the envelopes with fishing line and thumb tacked to the ceiling then tied the other ends to the grate in the fireplace.
Keepsake Wands – My Dad helped with these and he totally took the lead on designing them. He gathered up a bunch of “wand size” branches and sanded them down until super smooth and then stained them.
We let each guest pick out their wand and take them home. No wand is the same so every stick was different. Mom Bonus – Have your little kids help collect the sticks, Harper helped collect all of these with my Dad!
Dementors & Spider – Dementors and Spider were both made with balloons. For the Dementors I put a balloon up underneath a black plastic table-cloth (old black sheets or thrift store black sheets would work too – depends on your budget and time black plastic table cloths are easy to find) then took a pair of scissors to it and just went to town cutting to shreds. The spider was 2 balloons blown up and decorating party paper for the legs just torn off and taped onto balloons and the wall.
9 3/4 Door – Brick background found on Amazon with 9 3/4 picture taped on. We just taped the backdrop to the door and then added the sign with tape.
Food – Have guests bring Harry Potter themed food. Our menu was Brats and Burgers and everyone brought sides that had clever HP names like Hufflepuffs – Cheetos; Broomsticks – String cheese pulled apart a little on a pretzel stick; Mrs. Weasley’s Potato Salad in cups; Twizzlers – Magic Wands; Sour Worms – Sour Slugs and of course jelly beans! We also had the Harry Potter flavored jelly beans!
Other Party Details – My Brother in Law found labels to print online for soda bottles and he also found a recipe for Butter Beer. We bought frog molds off Amazon and made chocolate frogs. My Brother in Law had the Harry Potter Book cake made from their favorite Baker that made their wedding cake and it was AWESOME!
My Brother in Law and friends outdid themselves on the Quidditch Pong table and my Mother in Law made the Hagrid Birthday Cake.
These images were all printed out and just taped around the house. Lumos/Nox on light switches was done with the Harry Potter fonts I downloaded. Google, Amazon and Pinterest were our best friend for this party.
Don’t forget the Bathrooms! Easy Decor for the Bathroom, write in red lipstick on the mirror ” The Chamber of Secrets has been opened enemies of the heir Beware” . Find a picture of Moaning Myrtle and tape it to the toilet or somewhere in the bathroom. We even had the Moaning Myrtle sound effects!
Again Amazon to the rescue!
My adorable Husband having fun towards the end of the night! We found our costumes on Amazon too! They even had a wand pocket!!!
Planning a Harry Potter Party, visit my Harry Potter Board on Pinterest for more inspiration and ideas! There is So.Much.Out.There
Some of these photographs provided by cousin to the family, Jennifer. Click here for her page info and if you are in the Dallas area she’s awesome and just the sweetest!
Special thanks to My Brother in Law (and Sister in law unknowingly) for allowing us to throw the party and decorate their house with so much Harry Potter stuff! Could not have had all the awesome decorations we did without my Mother in Law’s help and who has awesome decorating skills. There are so many people to thank for this party my parents included who helped out with the wands and envelopes, and all of my sister in laws family and friends that helped decorate and brought the themed food!
Mother of Everything 
Great idea. My daughter is always looking for a cool, new theme. I think I have a good suggestion for her next party. Thanks, again.
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Oh my gosh, this is so cool! I love, love, love planning and hosting parties- especially ones with themes! This party looks to be absolutely incredible- must have been an unforgettable experience!
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This is so awesome! I LOVE Harry Potter! I like that you really paid attention to detail to make this party awesome. I love doing DIY Harry Potter projects. I haven’t done a party yet, but I have made a couple DIY Harry Potter board games and have redone several wooden chairs with paint and Harry Potter fabric.
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