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Harry Potter Themed Party Ideas | Decorations & Costumes for your Kids!

We’ve got the perfect Harry Potter Themed Party ideas all collated in one place. Consider us your Room of Requirement! You’re welcome.

Throwing the perfect Harry Potter Party

When it comes to throwing a perfect Harry Potter Party for your kids, you will need two very important elements. The Harry Potter party decorations and the Harry Potter Costumes. We’ve hunterd high and low and created an epic list of ideas…

Harry Potter decoration ideas

You’ve already chosen the theme, and there are so many ways to decorate your party Harry Potter style. You can base your decorations around a scene from your favourite Harry Potter book, like the shops in Diagon Alley, or hire a giant outdoor chess game just like in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Here are some of our favourite Harry Potter decoration ideas.

Is it an indoor party? Great! You could recreate Hogwarts Great Hall for the dining area complete with floating candles, Hogwarts house banners and incoming owls, or set up your own practical magical classroom to practice the spells above.

For an outdoor party, turn the deck or patio into King’s Cross Station with Platform 9¾. This is perfect if you have a few old suitcases you can stack up around the place, and garden benches to line the walls. If you like, you can create a station clock by hanging an old hose reel on the wall and drawing a clock face on white card with Textas.

If the party is at a local park or on a big lawn, we’ll tell you how to set up your own Quidditch pitch below, but if you’re heading outdoors, “Beware the Whomping Willow!”

DIY Harry Potter decorations

Are those your RSVPs?

In book one, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Hogwarts tried to get in touch with Harry by letter. If you have a fireplace you can recreate the scene by addressing lots of envelopes to Harry and stringing them together on multiple strands of fishing line or strong cotton attached to the fire grate and ceiling, just as if they were flying out of the fireplace! It goes without saying that you should remove all envelopes and fishing line BEFORE lighting the fire, and if the fire is an artificial one that can be turned on with a switch, please switch it off at the mains to keep it safe from inquisitive fingers! To recreate this idea, Harry’s address is:

Harry Potter,
The Cupboard under the Stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
SURREY

Platform 9¾

(Image courtesy Kara’s Party Ideas)

Invite your guests to enter the party via Platform 9 3/4! All you need is:

  • An old white sheet or curtain, or a roll of strong white paper like wallpaper or butchers paper (Ikea is a good source of long paper rolls!)
  • Some brick-red paint
  • A dishwashing sponge and tray.

Lay your sheet or paper on the ground and pour some paint into a tray or dish. Dip the sponge into the paint and, starting in the top left corner, work your way across and down the sheet stamping ‘bricks’ with the paint as you go to create a wall effect. When the paint is dry, carefully cut a split up the centre of the sheet (or separate your two strips of paper), and use sticky Velcro pads to secure the ‘wall’ to the doorframe of the party room. Hanf a sign proclaiming it “Platform 93/4” and invite guests to run through it to join the party!

Tip: If you don’t want to ruin your good sheets you’re sure to find an old one in an op-shop, or buy a bargain one from a cheap variety store. If using paper, place two strips side by side measuring as long as your door frame, and paint across the two to keep continuity in your bricks.

Floating candles

(Image credit The Sits Girls)

Hogwarts Great Hall is lit by hundreds of floating candles. Add atmosphere to your party food table with these easy DIY floating candles. You will need:

  • Flameless LED tea lights (the battery powered ones from variety and craft stores)
  • White card
  • Sticky tape (double sided is preferable!)
  • Cotton thread or fishing line

This one is really simple. All you have to do is measure the circumference of your tea light, and cut squares of card to that width. Wrap the card around the tea light (so that the ‘flame’ can be seen at the top) and secure with sticky tape. Use a long needle to pass the cotton/fishing line from one side of the candle through to the other directly beneath the tea light, pull both ends of the cotton up above the ‘flame’ and tie the ends together securely. Now hang your candles from the ceiling!

Tip: If you’d like to add a little more authenticity to your candles, use a glue gun to create ‘drips’ down the sides.

Where’s Moaning Myrtle?

If you have access to a printer, print an image of Moaning Myrtle and stick her on your bathroom mirror. Better yet, stick her under the lid of your toilet! You can find images to print online.

Hedwig Balloons

If you have someone with just a smidge of artistic talent, you can easily create a host of swooping owls to bring in the mail. All you will need is:

  • White helium standard balloons
  • Helium tank (available from craft stores and party places)
  • Black and yellow Sharpies
  • String
  • Envelopes, or rolled paper ‘scrolls’ addressed to the party guests

To create your owls, inflate the balloons and tie off with variable lengths of string. Now get creative with the Sharpies drawing owl faces and wings on the balloons. The yellow Sharpie is to colour the owl’s eyes. Tie the addressed envelope or scroll to the bottom of the string to act as a weight, or if you’re super-creative, make little claws out of cardboard or pipe cleaners to hold the letters!

Professor Flitwick’s flying keys

Craft stores are a great source of vintage looking keys, and with a little wire and something to create the wings, you’re all set to make your own Flitwick flying keys! You will need:

  • Wire of a reasonably thick gauge, but still easy to bend by hand
  • Vintage looking keys
  • Your choice of white tulle, craft feathers, or masking tape for the wings
  • Glue gun

If using tulle for the wings, cut a length of wire a little over the length of both wings, and thread it through the tulle. Allow it to bunch up a little and secure the ends with a good blob from a glue gun. Place the key in the centre of the wire, fold each end over to wrap it around, then bend the wings into a flying shape.

If using craft feathers, secure the feathers to the wire with a glue gun, or, if the wire is thin enough, wrap the wire along the length of the feather, and affix to the keys as above.

You can also make wings with masking tape. Cut a length of wire slightly longer than two wings. Curve into two wing shapes with a straight section about 2cm long in the centre and lay it flat on the table. Lay three strips of masking tape in straight lines over the curve of each wing, with the centre of the middle strip aligned to the top of the wing’s curve. Carefully lift the wings from the table and fold the masking tape over the top of each wing and down onto the back of itself (in a rectangle) so that the wire is secure between the two layers. Trim the wings to shape and add ‘feathering’. Place your key in the centre of the straight piece and cross the wires over to securely hold the wings to the key.

Hang your Flitwick keys from the ceiling, or from a string suspended from one wall to another. Make sure they’re suspended well above anyone’s eye level!

Tip: If you can’t hang your keys high enough above eye-level, omit the wire and simply glue feathers or tulle to the key with a glue gun – or your next party could unwittingly be a pirate party!

Golden snitches

You can add to your Flitwick Keys with Golden Snitches! You will need:

  • Small polystyrene balls (found in craft stores)
  • Gold paint
  • Craft feathers OR
  • Thin wire and tulle

Carefully paint your polystyrene balls gold and either glue on the craft feathers or pass a piece of wire through the centre of the ball and thread a piece of tulle onto each protruding end, adding a good blob of glue to the wire ends for safety.

The best way to string up your Golden Snitch is by using a long needle to pass thread or fishing line through the centre, secured with a good knot at the bottom and with plenty at the top to hang up your Snitches.

Quidditch pitch

To create an outdoor Quidditch pitch, you will need 6 hula-hoops, and six poles (strong garden canes will do) of three different lengths to fix your hula-hoops to. You can either drive your poles into the ground, or drill holes into wooden bases to stand them in. Plant pots filled with sand will work just as well as bases too. Then follow these rules to play the game!

For children we recommend substituting volleyballs and dodge balls for different coloured lighter foam balls, and pick a parent to be the snitch!

Escape from Azkaban ‘wanted’ frame!

Have you seen this wizard? Create a giant wanted poster out of a large sheet of thick card – or get creative with plywood and paint. Cut out the photograph section to form a frame for your little wizards, and use black paint or Sharpies to create the wanted poster. Suggested wording:

Have you seen this Wizard?

Approach with Extreme Caution.

Give your child a sign to hold up stating AZKABAN PRISON ΣΨ390 for added authenticity!

Hogwarts house banners

Variety stores are a great place to find coloured plastic party tablecloths. Instead of putting them on the table, you can hang them on a wall like Hogwarts house pennant banners!

  • Red for Gryffindor
  • Blue for Ravenclaw
  • Green for Slytherin
  • Yellow for Hufflepuff

Three easy little extras

1. Print signs in a gothic font to hang around the place. Here are some examples:

  • Watch your step, the stairs change
  • He who must not be named returns
  • The third floor corridor is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death – Albus Dumbledore
  • Hogwarts Room of Requirement (on the bathroom door!)
  • Moaning Myrtle’s Bathroom
  • Lumos and Nox (on the light switches)
  • Wizards only beyond this point
  • Diagon Alley
  • No muggles allowed
  • The Three Broomsticks

2. As Hagrid said to Harry Potter in The Chamber of Secrets, “Follow the spiders”! Create a trail of plastic spiders for your wizards to follow.

3. Put a rubber snake, painted to match your tap ware, against a tap in your bathroom to replicate the one that opened the Chamber of Secrets in Moaning Myrtle’s Bathroom.

Harry Potter party favor ideas

If you have the time and love being creative, you can create a full sized broomstick party favour bag by filling large strong brown paper bags with goodies, standing a pole, like a broom handle, in the centre and securing the top of the bag around the pole with lots of twine. Lay a second bag flat and cut lines from the base ¾ of the way up to the top, and put the first bag in this. The cut bag will look like broom bristles!

The paper bag idea will still make a great party favour broomstick in a smaller scale too. Substitute the broom handle for a bubble wand or large pretzel stick as part of the gift!

If your Harry Potter party is close to Hallowe’en time, fancy dress witch’s hats from the cheap dollar stores can also be used to create a great themed party favour bag.

Here are some suggestions for fillers:

  • One sock (to free Dobby!)
  • Ferroro Rocher ‘Golden Snitches’ (for the mums!)
  • Jelly beans, re-bagged as Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans (Bean Boozled jelly beans are great for this – they also have some pretty yuck flavours!)
  • Chocolate frogs (the frog-shaped ones if you can get them, often found in newsagents’)
  • Sherbet potions. You can buy fancy miniature plastic bottles or plastic test tubes from craft stores, then all you have to do is tip some colourful sherbet in, secure the top, and add your own potion label
  • Jelly snakes…
  • Or a rubber snake
  • Harry Potter glasses (try the cheap shops or fancy dress stores)
  • Little notebook and pencil for their spells
  • Lollypop broomsticks. Cut a strip of paper about 6cm wide by 18cm long, cut ‘bristles’ into it along one of the long sides to about 4-5cm of the width. Wrap your broom around the lollipop and secure with string to turn your lollipop into a broomstick!
  • Professor Flitwick’s flying key, as above
  • Owl droppings (okay, they’re really those little boxes of saltanas you get from the supermarket, but you can change up the labels!)
  • Hagrid’s pet (plastic) spider
  • Sherbet Lemons (available at some supermarkets) to be Honeyduke’s Acid Pops, or Sherbet Lemons just as they are – they’re Dumbledore’s favourite after all!

Harry Potter costume ideas for a party

The Harry Potter Shop in Samford has seen a resurgence (as if it ever went away!) of Potter Fever in South East Queensland. Why not make the most of it by pooling some resources together to throw a Potter Party for your next celebration?

First things first – you need costumes! Harry Potter Themed Party costumes are absolutely easy to make. Pinterest, the source of all things party-inspo, gives up the goods when it comes to Potter-costumes. Check this one out that we just love:

Harry Potter Themed Party Hermione

Easy-peasy-Hermione!

Or this one could be good for a giggle… Poor old Moaning Myrtle!

Harry Potter Themed Party Myrtle

We’ve already posted some great Harry Potter themed party games. Learn how to mix potions quicker than you can say “Half Blood Prince” while your little Potter wannabes wave their wands with glee!

Harry Potter themed party potions

Why not try your hand at Harry Potter Themed Party Trivia Questions? We’ve found this one from The Guardian that’s sure to puzzle even superfans. If you’re looking for something a little easier, why not ask the kids to create their own trivia?

You will need:

  • Coloured cards
  • Felt pens
  • Teams of two or three

Ask the children to write their own questions (and answers!) on pieces of card. Collect all of the questions once they’re written and then start the quiz. This way, the teams are sure to get at least their own questions right!

We’ve also managed to find this cool Printable Harry Potter Themed Party Treasure Hunt guide! It’s a little complex so don’t leave this one until the night before but it’s sure to keep them guessing for quite a while. (Long enough for the grownups to have their own feast in the Great Hall!)

Other Harry Potter Themed Party ideas…

  • Come up with your own curses! (Leviosah or Leviosaaaaah?)
  • Harry Potter Musical Statues – Play the Harry Potter soundtrack (especially that kind of scary ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ song) and get all Bellatrick LeStrange on them if someone moves at the wrong time!
  • Making cute Potter Puppet Pals out of socks, felt and pipe cleaners

Speaking of Potter Puppet Pals, a viewing of this one never goes astray (warning – some very mild implied violence)

Throwing a magical Harry Potter Themed Party for your kids

Check out our list of EPIC party ideas for tweens. Are there any here that you can incorporate into your Harry Potter theme?

Have fun at your party. And remember – Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light!

Want to get a REAL (kind of) Harry Potter Hogwarts letter? Find out how here!

We love a themed party! Here are more themed party ideas:

Families Magazine LOVES Harry Potter:

The Wizard’s Brunch Brisbane

REVIEW: Store of Requirement | Samford

How to Get a Harry Potter Acceptance Letter

Photo of author

Janine Mergler

Janine Mergler is a veteran Queensland teacher, graduating from QUT with a BEd majoring in Social Sciences. After many years in the classroom, Janine moved on to academia. She has proudly trained new generations of teachers in her role as a lecturer at Queensland University of Technology Faculty of Education. She has also worked in the Queensland Government as an education specialist, developing education resources and delivering community awareness programs to help families conserve water. Currently she is the owner and editor of Families Magazine, a publication specifically targeted at parents who value a quality education for children.  Janine leads a team of professionals who write about family lifestyle, early childhood, schools and education information and family-friendly events.

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