Oct
17

Awesome Activity Ideas For A Harry Potter Themed Birthday Party

Brianne Hager on October 17th, 2011

I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter books. I’ve read the series four times myself and once to my children. While I was searching online for the best ideas for Harry Potter birthday party supplies, I came up with so many great activity ideas that I realized I needed a completely separate article to be able to share them all.

Under each book below you will find links to the best ideas I found on other websites and lists of my own ideas. The further you get into the series, the harder it gets to find ideas online, so you will only find my own idea lists for the last three books. If your guests are children, take into account how much of the series most of them will actually have read and will understand. No point putting hours of work into creating an amazing hunt for the Horcruxes when only 2 out of the fifteen children attending will even know what a Horcrux is! The ages of the guests are also important. The further into the series you go, the darker and (for some children) scarier it can get.

Another important thing to do when planning a Harry Potter party is to choose a specific theme. There are a ton of different directions that you could take your Harry Potter birthday party in.

Harry Potter Birthday Party Theme Ideas

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Activity Ideas

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Activity Ideas

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Activity Ideas

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Activity Ideas

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Activity Ideas

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Activity Ideas

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Activity Ideas

Harry Potter Potion Jars

Harry Potter Birthday Party Theme Ideas

  • Yule Ball
  • Triwizard Tournament
  • Quidditch Tournament
  • Quidditch World Cup
  • Hunt for the Deathly Hallows
  • A Day At Hogwarts
  • Trip to Hogsmeade
  • A Day in Diagon Alley
  • A Dumbledore’s Army Meeting
  • Halloween At Hogwarts
  • Christmas Feast At Hogwarts
  • Harry Potter Lego
  • Harry Potter Wii
  • Harry Potter Movie Marathon
  • OWL’s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) or NEWT’s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests) One of these could be the name for a Harry Potter Trivia Party
  • An entire party devoted to a single class – Join Professor Snape for a Day of Potions
  • Save the Philosopher’s Stone or Search for the Philosopher’s Stone
  • Death Day Party – Celebrate Nearly Headless Nick’s Death Day as a great mix of Halloween and Harry Potter
  • Wizard Duelling
  • Sleepover Themes – Spend a Night At Hogwart’s  OR  Spend a Night in the Forbidden Forest

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Activity Ideas

Even though not all classes are first introduced in the Philosopher’s Stone, I have included here all links to ideas related to Wizard classes and basic wizard supplies.

Best Links From Other Websites

The links below are all to the same website which has some great letters from teachers with accompanying lessons which could help you out if you are planning Hogwarts classes for your birthday party. They will require quite a bit of work reading them and creativity in recreating them however, as the instructions are not complete and references are made to handouts that are not shown or linked to.

My Activity Ideas

  • Journey to Hogwarts – Decorate the inside of the hallway/entrance way to look like the inside of the Hogwarts Express and offer the guests cloaks (in the book they change out of their Muggle clothing before they reach Hogwarts.) Once they leave the ‘train’ have someone dressed as Hagrid greet them and take them into the party area or ‘Great Hall’.
  • Save the Philosopher’s Activity Idea 1: Get Through the Devil’s Snare – Take green yarn and tie it back and forth across a room from object to object until you have a huge mess of yarn going every which way. Leave a flashlight laying in a very obvious location on the other side of the room and let the children loose, explaining that they need to find their clue, and to remember the book. Have the clue taped to the flashlight and see how long it takes them to figure it out. (Devil’s Snare doesn’t like light.)
  • Save the Philosopher’s Activity Idea 2: Find the Winged Key – Tie tons of paper winged keys from the ceiling. Small ones, large ones, you could even tie some wings to real keys. Let the children figure out which key has their next clue. Either tape a clue to the back of one of the keys, or actually have one key that matches the shape of a paper keyhole attached to a door.
  • Save the Philosopher’s Activity Idea 3: Knocked Out Troll – In the next room, the three encounter a troll, already knocked out and unconscious on the floor. The most noticeable thing is the horrible smell. Blindfold the children and have them each smell a variety of containers, each one smelling really awful. When they correctly identify what each horrible smell is, they receive their clue.


Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Activity Ideas

Best Links From Other Websites

My Activity Ideas

  • Lockhart Trivia – Provide your guests with a homemade copy of “Magical Me”, Lockhart’s Autobiography and have them take a quiz. Have an adult dress as Lockhart and ask them questions about himself which they must answer on paper after reading his book. Afterwards, hand out autographed photos of Lockhart.
  • Find the Pixies – Professor Lockhart lets loose a cage of Pixies which destroy the room. Hide printed pictures of blue pixies all over the room and have the children find them all and return them to their cage.
  • Pass Professor Lockhart – Have an adult dress as Professor Lockhart, who lost his memory when he used Ron’s broken wand to try to erase Harry and Ron’s memories. Require the guests to answer trivia questions about the book or movie (from their memories) correctly in order to pass Lockhart and continue.
  • Follow the Diary – Alter the cover of a blank diary to make Tom Riddle’s Diary. Write the clues for a treasure hunt onto the pages with invisible ink (hold to a light bulb) or white crayon (color over the page with a dark crayon). As the guests follow the instructions in the book they will uncover clues to the location of the Basilisk.
  • Decipher Parseltongue – Harry learns in this book that he can understand and speak Parseltongue. Record different snake sounds and assign a letter or word to each. Play a recording and have the guests decipher it to receive a clue.
  • Kill the Basilisk – Lead the guests down into your basement, decorated to look like underground tunnels, and have them ‘kill’ a snake shaped pinata. Make your pinata stick look like Gryffindor’s sword.
  • Deathday Party – Celebrate Nearly Headless Nick’s deathday party with a feast of ‘rotting’ Halloween type foods and desserts.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Activity Ideas

Best Links From Other Websites

  • In Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry visits Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor in Diagon Alley. I especially like the idea of offering strange toppings such as Troll Bogies. http://www.potterparties.com/decoration/30
  • Have children create their own Monster Book of Monsters. You could pick up some great supplies at Halloween for decorating the books. The link is for making a book cover with a paper bag, but I would go further and pick up some cheap used books, making sure the subject matter is child-friendly, re-cover them with paper or furry fabric and then let the kids decorate real books. http://www.potterparties.com/game/47

My Activity Ideas

  • Boggart Drawings – The students are introduced to Boggarts this year, dark creatures that take the shape of a Wizard’s worst fear. The Riddikulus spell changes the Boggarts appearance into something funny, and laughter is effective against it. Give the guests pictures of dark creatures and blank paper and have them draw them in a way that would make the creatures look humorous rather than frightening.
  • Dress the Boggart – Provide a variety of Halloween and other costumes and props. Divide your guests into teams. Have each team choose one member to be the Boggart. The chosen Boggart dresses up in a scary Halloween costume. When the Boggarts are ready, set a timer and have the teams compete to do the best job of dressing their Boggarts in a humorous way.
  • Defeat the Dementors – Blow up black balloons (add some helium if you want them to float) and cover them with black net fabric. Have the children pop them either by sitting or stepping on them or by jabbing them with their wands. Remember to have them yell Expecto Patronum.
  • Marauder’s Map Treasure Hunt – The Marauder’s Map is introduced in this book. Create a map of your own yard or home similar to the Marauder’s Map and use it to guide the guests on a treasure hunt.
  • Palmistry – In Divination class this year the students cover Palmistry. Have an adult dress as Professor Trelawney and give the guests Palm Readings.
  • Turning Back Time – This would work best if you can record the children during a noisy activity during an earlier part of the party. At the end of the party, provide your guests with time turners and tell them they are going to save Buckbeak by going back in time. Tell them to turn their time turners a certain amount of turns, then lead them back through the house, reminding them that they cannot be seen because it would change history. Be sure to pass by a room in which they completed an activity earlier in the party, but have a recording of the children playing loudly so that it sounds like it is all happening again. Make it all very sneaky. Have them encounter and defeat the Dementors from the activity above. Then have a hidden adult howl like a werewolf. Lead them to a pumpkin patch and have them untie a ‘hippogriff’ and take it back into the house with them. Award them with prizes for their hard work.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Activity Ideas

Best Links From Other Websites

My Activity Ideas

  • Pensieve of Memories – This works as both a decoration and an activity. Provide each guest with a disposable camera and request that they take photos of their favorite moments during the party. Have a large pensieve set up  by putting shimmery, silver material into a bowl (a unique large pot or bowl big enough to hold all of the cameras). When a guest has filled up their camera with ‘memories’ they can put their memories into the pensieve. Write names on the cameras with permanent marker so that cameras won’t get mixed up during the party and later you will know who took each picture.
  • Triwizard Tournament Activity Idea 1: String Maze – Before the party, take entire rolls of yarn in different colors (one for each team) and tie a popsicle stick onto the end of each roll. One at a time, unravel the rolls while walking (preferably outside), leaving all of the popsicle stick ends in the same location as the starting point  around trees, under steps, etc… until the roll is finished. Tie a prize or clue to the end. Have all of the teams start at the same time and follow their strings. Set the rule that one person must be holding the popsicle stick at all times. If you made the strings overlap at points, it will be interesting to watch the teams untangle themselves.
  • Triwizard Tournament Activity Idea 2: Pass the Sphinx – Have an adult dressed as a Sphinx (or behind a Sphinx decoration to give them the appearance of being one) require that the teams solve a riddle in order to pass.
  • Triwizard Tournament Activity Idea 3: Hogwart’s Lake – In the book, the champions are asked to retrieve something valuable to them from the lake. While the children are performing another task, secretly take a belonging such as their shoes or even their wands (if they received these during the party). Decorate a room with an underwater theme and hide the objects really well. To make it extra difficult, keep the room dark and hang a ton of green streamers from the ceiling to make it hard to see and move around. Let the children enter one at a time and let them know not to take anything that doesn’t belong to them.
  • Rita Skeeter Interviews – Have an adult dress up as Rita Skeeter and interview the children individually. That person can then take the interviews and spice them up a bit like Rita does in the books, print them out, and hand them back out to the children to keep.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Activity Ideas

My Activity Ideas

  • Department of Mysteries – Label different doors in your home with numbers and create a puzzle that the children need to solve in order to figure out which door will lead them to the Hall of Prophecy where they will find prophecies with their names on them.
  • Hall of Prophecy – If you can find clear plastic balls (maybe the ones that toys come in from the candy machines in malls) that look nice, you could put fortunes inside them. If not, another way to create the prophecy balls is to use small balloons to create round paper mache balls. Have the children smash their prophecies on the floor to find out their fortune (write fortunes that will actually come true, such as “You will soon eat a slice of cake.”)
  • Dumbledore’s Army – Let your guests practice their defensive magic with the spells listed below. Be sure to guide them to a secret room first, as the group’s meetings take place in the hidden Room of Requirement. A cool idea would be to cover the wall around a door with brick patterned paper, and then have the same paper hanging over the door in a way that it can be pulled up from the other side. Have the children walk back and forth in front of the ‘wall’ and concentrate hard on what they need (a room to practice defensive spells.) Have someone on the other side pull the paper up, exposing the door.
  • Expecto Patronum – Take small flashlights and twist off the light covers. Cut small circles out of cardstock to fit inside and then punch animal shapes out of the circles. Put the circles in and put the light cover back on. When you turn on the flashlight, it should shine an image of the animal onto the wall. Prepare one for each guest with different animals, and at the party let them each choose one to find out what their patronus is. To make it more fun, hang a couple of balloon dementors (black with fabric over) around for them to aim their flashlights at.
  • Reducto – This spell blasts an object out of the way. Set up cardboard creatures such as acromantula and provide each child with a special wand. Create the wands in advance – cut wrapping paper or paper towel tubes into wand lengths. Attach pieces of black craft foam to the ends, but at the tip end of the wand, only attach it partially so that it can flap open. Put an object such as a small bean bag or ball from a dollar store inside each wand. Show the children how to start with their wand up and slightly behind them and fling them towards the acromantula, which will cause the ball inside the wand to shoot out. Make sure that there are no breakable objects in the room when you play this game, and don’t set up the acromantula in front of a window. Test this game before the party to make sure that your cardboard figures aren’t too strong for the balls to knock down.
  • Impedimenta – This spell slows a person or creature down and would work great for an ending to the DA meeting. Have an adult dress up as Umbridge and enter the Room of Requirement to chase the kids away. Have them prepared to yell Impedimenta and wave their wands at her. She should then pretend to go in slow motion, giving the guests time to run out the door and get away.
  • OWLs (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) – Hold a trivia contest and at the end award your guests with certificates stating that they have passed their OWLs.


Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Activity Ideas

My Activity Ideas

  • Potions With the Half-Blood-Prince – Provide guests with a homemade copy of a potions textbook. The textbook should have spells with lots of student scribbling and editing on them, changing parts of the directions and ingredients. Have them follow some of the potions in their books to create different potions. If you can make them edible, even better.
  • Slug Club – Have a Slug Club party and serve Slughorn’s favorite foods such as crystallized pineapple, chocolates, and wine (grape juice and pop mixture). Hold a contest to see who has the most famous relative and award that guest with a bottle of Felix Felicis, the good luck potion.
  • Search For Slytherin’s Locket – This could be set up as a haunted house type treasure hunt (scary or not, depending on how you decorate and how many lights you leave on). First, lead guests to the opening of the cave (basement stairs maybe) and provide them with flashlights. In the book, blood was required to open the rock. Instead, you could have them use a potion they created in the potion class idea above. Use a shimmery fabric to cover the floor to look like water, and scatter halloween body party parts and limbs underneath it, just peeking through small cuts in the fabric. Have a few adult helpers dressed as inferi (zombies) also lying still under the fabric. Place a long board across the fabric. Make it tricky to stay on, possibly placed up on bricks. Once they walk across, have goblets full of an edible (but gross looking) potion that they are required to drink (but don’t force it). Under the goblets place lockets that they can keep. If you have adult helpers, have them dressed as zombies and start coming up out of the fabric once the children start drinking the potions. If the children panic, remind them that inferi are afraid of light. They can shine their flashlights on the inferi to slow them down, giving them time to get out of the basement.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Activity Ideas

My Activity Ideas

  • Harry Potters – In the beginning of the book Harry’s friends take polyjuice potion to look like him and fool Voldemort. Request that your guests come dressed as Harry Potters and award prizes for the best costumes.
  • Tale of the Three Brothers – This is the story in “Tales of Beedle the Bard” that explains the history of the deathly hallows. You could read it aloud to your guests or even dress up and perform the story.
  • Hunt for the Horcruxes – Remind your guests that the first three Horcruxes (Riddle’s Diary, Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring and Slytherin’s Locket) have already been destroyed. The remaining Horcruxes to find are: Hufflepuff’s Cup, Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem, Nagini, and Harry himself. You could set this up as a treasure hunt, or you could just hide a tiara, teacup and plastic snake. If you choose to hide the objects and you have your guests dressed as Harry Potter, a fun way to ‘hide Harry’ as the last Horcrux would be to surreptitiously place a paper or sticker reading “Horcrux” onto the back of one of the guests.
  • Destroy Slytherin’s Locket – A large paper mache locket would work great for this. Make a paper mache pinata in the shape of a jewel and attach a gray or silver paper chain. Attach a flap with cardstock to the front of the pinata, and paint an eye underneath it. Play a recording of a snake hissing and open the front of the ‘locket’ to reveal the eye. Let the children take turns smashing the eye with a stick decorated to look like Gryffindor’s sword.

 

For even MORE Harry Potter birthday party ideas, use the form below to sign up for my newsletter. You will receive a FREE 101 page Harry Potter Birthday Party Plan. This 101 page plan guides you step-by-step through the entire process of planning, creating everything you need, and even guides you through the day of the party. It includes full-color photo tutorials and printable templates so that you can easily create EVERYTHING you need to put together a complete birthday party. Take your party guests through an entire day of classes at Hogwarts, starting with a Sorting Ceremony (with a hat that really talks!) and ending with a treasure hunt and a trip to Hogsmeade to buy wizard candy.

 

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Oct
17

Huge List of Unique Harry Potter Birthday Party Supplies – Invitations, Decorations, and Favors

Brianne Hager on October 17th, 2011

The internet is full of ideas for making your own Harry Potter birthday party supplies, but a lot of them are the same from website to website. You won’t find that here. I have created a list of the best and most unique invitation, decoration, and party favor ideas.

Under each category below, you will find links to the best ideas I found on other websites, a list of my own ideas from the books, and links to the best supplies available for purchase if you would rather save the time and purchase your supplies instead.

Harry Potter Birthday Party Invitations

Harry Potter Birthday Party Decorations

Harry Potter Birthday Party Favors

Harry Potter Sorting Hat

Harry Potter Birthday Party Invitations

Best Invitation Ideas From Other Websites

My Invitation Ideas

  • Hogwart’s Express Tickets: Send your guests a ‘ticket’ to board the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9 ¾. Add a ticket number and barcode to make your ticket look authentic. Look for pictures of train tickets for inspiration.
  • Miniature Firebolts: Write “Firebolt” on the side of mini broomsticks (try a dollar store around Halloween or make your own.) Tie the invitations to the brooms, and on them, ask the guest to ‘fly on over to join in the festivities at Hogwarts’.
  • Triwizard Tournament Party: First send out slips of parchment paper to all of the invited children. Explain in a letter that they are to write their names on the papers and send them back and that the Goblet of Fire will choose 8 (or however many children you have invited) students to participate in the tournament. When you receive the papers back, send the official invitations letting each child know that they have been selected as a Champion to take part in the tournament.
  • Daily Prophet Invitation: Include various articles, but have your party theme be the large front page article. Word the article creatively to include the name of the guest as well as the details of the party.
  • A Marauder’s Map: Create a map of your yard/home and make it look like the marauder’s map. If you can work the map into the activities for the party, as part of a treasure hunt for example, then be sure to note that in the invitation so that guests bring their map with them.
  • A Sorting Hat: You could make a mini sorting hat and tie the invitation to it, or make a flat hat shaped invitation out of cardstock. Write: “Where will the Sorting Hat place YOU? Join us for a day at Hogwarts to find out!” Include images of the four house badges inside the card.
  • Ministry of Magic Memo: Shape your invitation like a paper airplane and make it look like an official letter from the Ministry of Magic inviting a few special Muggles to experience a day at Hogwarts as a new program by the Ministry of Magic to improve relations between Witches and Muggles.
  • DA Coin: Don’t put the date and time on the invitation. Instead, include a coin with a date and time stamped on it and let them know to check their coin for the time and date of the next Dumbledore’s Army meeting. Hermione put a Protean Charm on the coins in the story so that they would look like regular coins unless there was a meeting. If your coins are made of paper, write the date and time with white crayon and let your guests color over them with a darker color to reveal the information.
  • A Howler: Send out invitations designed to look like howlers. Have the message state something like: “Some very important potion ingredients have gone missing and you are required in my office at ___ date and time to help sort out the matter. ~Professor Snape”

Best Invitations to Purchase Online

American Greetings Free Trial

Harry Potter Birthday Party Decorations

Best Decoration Ideas From Other Websites

My Decoration Ideas

  • Flying Snitches: Blow up gold balloons with helium and attach paper ‘wings’. Let them float around the room. If you prefer your snitches to be more correct in size, buy light plastic balls from a dollar store, paint them gold, glue on wings, and hang them from your ceiling.
  • Enchanted Ceiling: Cover your ceiling in plastic glow in the dark stars and at some point in the party make a point of darkening the room so that the stars can glow. This could also be used for an astronomy class.
  • Broomsticks: lean a couple in odd corners of the rooms.
  • Great Hall: If you have the space, rather than choosing one house for your decorations, set up each corner of your party room in the colors of one of the four houses, complete with balloons, streamers, and the house banner.
  • Floating Candles: Hang battery tea light candles from the ceiling by fishing line (it’s clear) and turn them on for the party. If the switches on the bottom are too obvious, glue or tape on a circle of white craft foam or heavy cardstock to cover it.
  • Herbology: Have a variety of odd looking plants set up in a corner of the room labelled with names from the books and a sign saying Herbology or Professor Sprout’s Greenhouse. Be careful to choose house plants that are not poisonous, or to put any poisonous ones up on a high shelf where they can not be reached and put warning labels on them.
  • Moaning Myrtle: Record Moaning Myrtle’s voice from the various parts of The Chamber of Secrets Movie. Leave some blank noise between each clip and play the sounds from a hidden location in your bathroom. Guests will be surprised to sit down and hear Moaning Myrtle talk to them.
  • Owls: Hang stuffed owls from your ceiling, some could even have rolled up parchment attached to their feet as if they are carrying a letter to someone. For added effect, scatter some loose feathers around on the floor, and even a couple lying on shelves or on the table.
  • Care of Magical Creatures: Try setting up a wire cage or cages with different creatures in such as the blast ended skrewts or the pixies. Change stuffed animals or creepy Halloween props such as large rats to look like the creatures from the books. Put up a sign warning students not to reach inside the cages.
  • Gringotts: Have a tall table or a desk in a corner with a sign saying Gringotts on it. If you have a goblin costume, have a helper act as a goblin. If not, have a sign saying closed or out for lunch. Place old metal dishes full of chocolate coins on the desk.
  • Umbridge’s Decrees: Make your own decrees from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and hang them all up on the same wall.
  • Umbridge’s Office: Cut out the centers of paper plates and paint the leftover outside circles pink. Print out pictures of cats and tape them into the pink ‘frames’. Hang them on the walls around a desk. Place all kinds of pink things on the desk.
  • Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes: Set up a shop and give out a variety of joke items and toys as the party favors. Create a U-No-Poo poster.

Best Decorations to Purchase Online

Harry Potter Birthday Party Favors

Best Party Favor Ideas From Other Websites

My Party Favor Ideas

  • ‘Real’ Wands: This is similar to how I made wand for my own children. Take fancy wooden dowel rods and carve the tips into rounded points. Drill holes into the handle ends of the wands. Provide the children with a selection of cores for their wands. Silver pipe cleaners can be dragon heartstrings. Red feathers can be Phoenix feathers. Once they have chosen their cores, seal the ends by gluing on a small circle of felt or craft foam. Supply paint, glue, glitter, etc… and let them decoration their wands.
  • Wand Carrier Cards: Use your computer to print out wand carrier cards. Include the children’s names, ages, and blank spaces to fill in wand length, wood type, and wand core. Leave a space for them to sign their cards. Once they are finished, cover them with contact paper or clear packing tape.
  • Stuffed Familiars: Stuffed rats, cats, toads, or owls would make great party favors.
  • Photos: Set up a booth or display complete with props and costumes for individual or group photos of the children. These can be printed immediately (or use a Polaroid camera) and added to the favor bags.
  • Chocolate or Candy Snitches: – Wrap round chocolates or gumballs with gold foil and attach gold leaves made of paper or craft foam.
  • Blood Worms: If you are setting up any potion jars as decorations (such as a Professor Snape’s Potion Ingredients), a really neat favor to send home would be a small jar of ‘blood worms’. Fill small baby food jars and send them home as favors. Find the recipe here: http://www.theidearoom.net/2009/09/jell-o-blood-worms.html
  • Soaps: Make frog, rat, broomstick, or other wizard item shaped soaps. You can use candy molds from a craft supply store.
  • Dragons: Spray paint plastic Easter eggs, the kind that open in half, with gold or rock textured spray paint. Put toy dragons inside.
  • Placemats: Make placemats with house badges printed or painted on them. Include the words that the Sorting Hat sings for each house. Cover them in contact paper and send them home with the children after the party.
  • Quills: Attach large feathers to pens with hot glue to give out as quills.

Best Party Favors to Purchase Online

  • These Harry Potter Bandz would be great as party favors or they could even be worn as a creative way of separating guests into the four houses.
  • This is the exact same Chocolate Frog Mold that I used to create my Chocolate Frog favors and they turned out amazing, very realistic. When filling with chocolate, tap the mold to remove air bubbles.
  • These Edible Magic Pop Rocks Potions look really cool and there are 12 in a package.
  • Order these cute Pen Quills and after the Hogwarts classes are over, let the guests keep them.
  • What is a Harry Potter party without Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans? Buy them individually or By The Case.
  • A lot of great favors can be stuffed into a pinata and this Yellow Lightning Bolt definitely fits the theme!


For even MORE Harry Potter birthday party ideas, use the form below to sign up for my newsletter. You will receive a FREE 101 page Harry Potter Birthday Party Plan. This 101 page plan guides you step-by-step through the entire process of planning, creating everything you need, and even guides you through the day of the party. It includes full-color photo tutorials and printable templates so that you can easily create EVERYTHING you need to put together a complete birthday party. Take your party guests through an entire day of classes at Hogwarts, starting with a Sorting Ceremony (with a hat that really talks!) and ending with a treasure hunt and a trip to Hogsmeade to buy wizard candy.

If you enjoyed this article, sign up for my free newsletter!

 

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Decorations, Favors, Harry Potter, Invitations No comments »
Sep
17

10 Tips To Help You Find Cool Birthday Gifts For Children

Brianne Hager on September 17th, 2011

Gift giving and receiving is an important part of children’s birthday parties. When you send your child to a birthday party, you should send them with a gift that they can be excited about giving. You don’t want to embarrass your child by having them give a gift that is cheap or not likely to be liked by the birthday child. If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, or you aren’t sure what you shouldn’t send as a gift, this list will help you find the perfect birthday gift.

1. Find out the theme of the birthday party. Chances are, if the party theme is Pirates, the birthday child would be thrilled to receive a pirate themed board game. This may be as simple as looking at the invitation. If the invitation doesn’t make it obvious, call the parents.

2. Shop in specialty stores rather than large chains. A small toy store will likely have a variety of more unique toys and you will be more likely to choose a present no one else thought of.

3. Try unusual stores that you may not think of at first. Often times a hardware store will have a small selection of toys. Most bookstores sell more than just books. I found the perfect gift for my son to give at a birthday party when we visited a bookstore. The store sells a huge variety of board games and craft kits that I don’t usually find anywhere else.

4. Remember that the cost is important. You don’t need to go out and spend a hundred dollars, but you also do not want to send your child with a used gift or a cheap gift from the dollar store. If the birthday child has to be reminded to smile and say thank you, then your child is going to feel bad.

5. Choose age appropriate gifts. Make sure that the gift you choose is not above the level of the child you are choosing it for. At the same time, you also do not want to choose a toy that is for younger children.

6. Don’t send cash in a card or a gift card. Sending your niece money in the mail is nice, but don’t send your child to a birthday party without a wrapped gift. A lot of parents will make a game out of the gift giving, having all of the children sitting and holding the gift they brought. You don’t want your child to be the only not holding a gift.

7. When it doubt, always look go for different and unique over something ordinary. A fun or cool looking board game will usually work, most children don’t have all of the board games available. Don’t stick with the ordinary Barbie dolls or toy vehicles.

8. Avoid clothing, room decorations, or jewellery. These are hard items for even close family members to get right. With clothing especially, it is a gift that the parents are more likely to appreciate. Not many children are excited about opening a present to find clothing. These types of items are best left to the child or the parents themselves to pick.

9. Take your child with you when picking the gift. Who better to know what the birthday child might prefer than another child the same age? Let them know your price limit and ask for their advice. Your child may have some really great ideas for a gift.

10. If you have enough time before the party, try shopping online. There are some really unique online stores that sell hard to find toys. Two of my favorites are www.mindware.com and www.grandrivertoys.com

Do you have any unique birthday gift ideas? Let me know in the comments below, and good luck finding a great gift!

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Gifts/Presents No comments »
Sep
13

Helium For Balloons: Balloon Time Helium Kit Review

Brianne Hager on September 13th, 2011

If you are looking for an easy way to get helium gas for balloons, you will definitely want to look into purchasing a Balloon Time helium tank. They are light, easy to use, and recyclable.

balloon-time-helium-tank balloon-time-helium-tank-top

I used to see the Balloon Time helium balloon kits in our local stores all of the time, and have been wanting to try one. Of course, when I finally went to get one I couldn’t find one. I eventually managed to grab the last one at a Wal-Mart in a nearby city. It was definitely worth the trouble though, I loved it! And so did the kids! I hosted a Medieval Feast and we had the children take turns showing of their ‘Archery’ skills by shooting at the balloons with a real bow and arrow.

top-of-helium-tank   red-helium-tank

There are two basic types of Balloon Time kits available:

  1. Standard and Jumbo Helium Balloon Kits – These kits come with balloons and ribbon. The only difference in size. Standard fills 30 balloons and Jumbo fills 50.
  2. Create-A-Party Helium Cylinders – These kits come in the same sizes and include the ribbon, but they do NOT include balloons. They can be used to fill either latex or Mylar balloons, but Mylar balloons will use up more of the helium.

I purchased a Create-A-Party-Helium Standard Cylinder (type number 2). I paid $23 CAD, which I thought was a good price for the convenience of being able to blow up my balloons at home. I didn’t have to have them filled in a store and then try to transport them home. The tank is also extremely light, making it easy to move around, and it is recyclable.

curling-ribbon-for-balloons recycling-instructions-for-helium-tank

When I opened the kit I found the roll of ribbon (white, and the type that curls if you slide it along the side of your scissors) and the tank. The instructions for using the tank are printed directly onto the side of the tank. At the bottom of the box I found an instruction sheet for how to recycle or dispose of the tank when it is empty.

To fill your balloons, there is a tap on the top (mine was green) which you turn counter clockwise like a water tap. Then you simply put the neck of your balloon onto the black nozzle and push the nozzle down to fill the balloon. It was extremely easy to figure out and use.

I was able to fill more than enough balloons for what I wanted. My tank was for up to 30 balloons, but I only needed about 15 for this particular party. If you want a lot of balloons, you’ll probably want to get the Jumbo sized kit which can fill 50 balloons.

Extras and Accessories

Balloon Time also sells creative balloon packs. I didn’t pick one up this time as none really went with my theme (medieval!), but there were a few I will enjoy trying out in the future. The packages contain shaped foil balloons off all kinds to fit your theme, but the ones that I found the most interesting were the packs that create a balloon arch.

Overall, I was really happy with the product and I will definitely be purchasing another for the next birthday party that I plan where a helium tank for balloons is needed. If you can’t find one at a local store, try searching Amazon using the search form below.

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Balloons, Decorations No comments »
Sep
12

Creative Birthday Party Ideas Using Salt Dough

Brianne Hager on September 12th, 2011

Salt dough is extremely useful when planning a birthday party. The only limit with salt dough is your imagination. It is very easy to make and uses cheap ingredients you probably already have at home! It stores extremely well in the fridge and when you want to save your creations, they dry hard like rocks. When dry, you can paint salt dough and glue decorations to it. Below are some examples of how I have used salt dough in my own birthday parties. Or, scroll down to the bottom to find the recipe.

For Use in Birthday Party Activities

Can’t find a specific item you need for your party? Make it out of salt dough! A great example of this is the Super Mario Coins I made for my son’s Super Mario Party 8 themed birthday party. I couldn’t find any plastic coins that I liked, so I made my own! For a Harry Potter birthday party, salt dough could be used to make your own runes for a Divination class, or even wizard coins.

For Parts of Birthday Party Costumes

It can also save you money when you need to make something unique and can’t find it in a store near you. Try making what you need out of salt dough. When my oldest child asked me to help put on a Little Mermaid play for a birthday party, I used salt dough to create a lot of the props. The shell that Ursula uses on a necklace to hold Ariel’s voice would be hard to find for me. We don’t live anywhere near an ocean and at the time I could not find a shell anywhere! Instead I used salt dough to mold my own shell, which worked wonderfully!

As Birthday Party Decorations

Salt dough can also be molded into different decorations or props. I made a creepy guestbook for the children that came to my son’s Halloween birthday party to sign. But instead of laying a pen on the table, I laid out a ‘severed finger’ – a pen wrapped in salt dough and molded into the shape of a finger. The children loved it!

In Birthday Party Crafts

Of course children love salt dough also, and you could even use the dough during the party for a great party craft! Put the creations into small boxes and send them home with instructions to bake or air dry.

Salt Dough Recipe

Are you ready to make your own salt dough? Here is my favorite recipe!

Materials Needed:

  • 1 cup salt
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup water

Instructions:

  1. Mix the salt and flour in a bowl.
  2. Stir in the water and then knead until it forms a dough.
  3. Use immediately or keep sealed in a bag in the refrigerator.
  4. Bake your creations in the oven overnight at the lowest temperature, or let them air dry for a few days. Either way, flip them occasionally so that both sides can dry.
  5. Tip: Very thick items can take a very long time to dry and the middle may sink. Try keeping your items fairly thin, or mold them around another item such as aluminum foil.

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Activities, Recipes No comments »