Moan No More About Your Harry Potter Party

Harry Potter parties are something I know a little bit about and would love to have before the premiere on Friday morning. I had a party for my son’s birthday and found an idea of what may work if I was having an adult party.

I would advise sending your friends some sort of invitation to the event. I have used an official Hogwarts acceptance letter and fashioned it with specifics to the party. One idea is to have them meet at platform 9 3/4 and paint bricks onto a sheet that you hang in front of the door so that your guest must pass the barrier before they enter the party world.  You may also just say that the meeting area will be disguised as a muggle’s house so then you can avoid decorations.

Based on party size you can sort your party into the four different houses and then play a little trivia game based on the books, and the movies. If you have a young bunch, I would recommend Quidditch. Another must is to have your guests go through some classes -- from transfiguration, to divination, and of course potions.  At the site listed below you will find a great resource to easy and fun ideas that will make your party something to remember.  For classes such as transfiguration you can tape characters on your friends back as they try and determine who they are.  I may take some names with me to the movie theater that night and see if I can’t stir up some fun while I wait for the movie.  For potions use bowls and have your guest make some of the food for the party of course giving it interesting names. 

http://www.britta.com/hogwarts/recipes.html#butterbeer

Food and drink is a must have at any Harry Potter party the link above will give you easy recipes that allow you to make the drinks alcoholic for those party guests over 21. For my son’s party, I bought mugs at Goodwill, cleaned them and used etching glass paint to write ButterBeer on the mugs and let the kids take them home. There are countless recipes in the link from chocolate frogs, fudge, cauldron cakes, acid pops, etc. You could also go real simple and serve turkey legs.

Some money savers that I found utilize the resources we have locally. For my son’s party I went to the Jelly Belly factory and bought lots of bags of the flops, then I bought the nasty flavored beans and mixed them all together. I know its cheating on the idea, but the concept is right and so is the cost. Also I went to the Ghirardelli outlet and got 2 ½ pounds of melting chocolate for $4 a box (such a deal). I got the frog mold for $2 online and you can buy big cauldrons for $1 online. I made wands for 17 cents a piece. I bought dowels and then burned and painted them.