How to Throw a Harry Potter Party

Have you ever wanted to throw a Harry Potter Party, but you just weren’t sure where to start? I was in the same boat once upon a time, but after some trial and error I’ve discovered the perfect formula to making your Harry Potter Party a success!

So, naturally, I throw a Harry Potter Party on July 31^st preeeeetty much every year to celebrate Harry Potter’s birthday. I spend all of July prepping for it, and they seem to be getting better and better. I promise, the more often you do this, the better your parties will get.

And this doesn’t have to just be for Harry Potter’s birthday. You can use this to celebrate your own birthday, baby showers, bridal showers (my bridal shower was Harry Potter themed), Halloween parties, and whatever else you can think of. Get creative!

Harry Potter isn’t the only theme I aim for, though. (Like I said, I am a die-hard fan.) I like to theme it around one of the books or an event within the book as well. For 2021, I decided on book 1, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Sorry, I knew it as the Sorcerer’s Stone for so long it is hard for me to think of it as the Philosopher’s Stone. (Philosopher does sound cooler, I will admit. 😉)

So allow me to show you just how I plan and throw a Harry Potter Party.

HOW TO THROW A HARRY POTTER PARTY

First off… a spreadsheet! Boring I know, but I wanted to list out alllllll of the things I could think of from each of the books. I even re-listened to the book in preparation for it. (If you haven’t listened to the Harry Potter books, I highly recommend it.) Fortunately for you, I have attached my spreadsheet of everything that I could find that stood out to me from each of the books.

I’ve read the first three books more often so I have a lot more from those. Plus, the first three introduce a lot of the iconic places, items, and food from the stories. If you think of anything that I should add to my list, however, please comment! You can never have too much Harry Potter.

What to Choose for Your Party

The hard part is deciding what to use from your list. For instance, in Sorcerer’s Stone, you have your first introduction to Diagon Alley and Hogwarts. To make it easier on myself and my limited space, I decided to forgo Diagon Alley and only focus on Hogwarts and some of the classes you see in Year 1.

(I definitely want to do a Diagon Alley themed party one year. Recreating the Diagon Alley shop windows is my dream!)

I definitely picked a lot of things that I wanted to use from my list but probably only used about half of them. I always bite off a lot more than I can chew. But fear not! Prioritize which items are most important for you to have at your party and then include less important items as you have the time. For example, I knew that I definitely wanted to have flying keys. They were the first item that I made to ensure I would have them for my party. So, pick your priorities and run with them.

There are 3 major components that I split my parties into: Décor, Food, and Games.

Harry Potter Party Decorations

Start on the décor as early as you can manage. I gave myself a full month this last time, and it made all the difference for me. If you’ve prioritized, you’ll be able to have a lot of awesome things ready to go. Do you want to do a Book 3 Hogsmead theme? Think about what shops are in the village and what you might see in their store windows. What about a House Common Rooms theme? Lots of pillows in the various house colors could be a great addition.

Some props are simple to make, and some are easy to buy. Think outside the box and you’ll be amazed at what you can do. Youtube is also an amazing place to learn how to make some fun props. Wizardy Workshop is one of my favorite channels to find DIYs. The channel is overflowing with fantastic ideas for DIY props and décor. Many of the items are pretty simple to make too. In fact, some of them you just have to print out and you’re done!

Not all of your décor needs to be straight out of the books either. We hit up our local thrift store, and for about $80 we had quite the haul of Hogwarts aesthetic items. My all-time favorite piece we found was an old wooden school desk. It was covered in pencil marks and paint drips from previous students, and it fit the Hogwarts vibe perfectly. Can you believe it only cost $12?

Need a few more ideas? Check out my Pinterest page. Not much of a crafter and want to buy most of your items? Check out Amazon and Etsy for some easy ideas. Nothing needs to be crazy expensive to be awesome. The goal is to create the Wizarding World ambiance, and it is 100% possible to do it on a budget.

Harry Potter Party Food

Food can wait much closer to the actual event since you’ll be making items a day or two before and even the day of. If you are inviting a lot of people, I suggest you ask people to share the load a bit and assign food items for them to bring. I promise that this will help you a ton.

Now, it is tempting to stick with all the really familiar food items that we know of from the books. Unfortunately, the most iconic food are sweets. That is great if you want a strictly dessert spread for your party. If you are like me, however, you want a much better balance of savory and sweet for your guests to choose from. I usually pick 3 or 4 sweets I’d like to showcase for the theme and go with savory for the rest.

Since I was doing book 1 this year, I decided to have Hagrid’s Birthday Cake for Harry and treats off the trolley (Jelly Beans, Chocolate Frogs, lemon drops, & licorice). For drinks, I did pumpkin juice and gillywater. This recipe for Pumpkin Juice from the blog In Literature is delicious and simple to make. My whole house smells of pumpkin once it’s done which just adds to the wizardly vibe.

Next is the savory. A lot of the savory food in Harry Potter is a bit more generic compared to their sweets. So I usually go with some of my own preferred savory food. My favorite savory go-to for a party is a charcuterie board. You can get real fancy with it, or you can pick up some various meats, cheeses, and crackers from your local grocery store (Costco has some amazingly affordable options) and everyone will be thrilled. It’s the perfect finger food.

Harry Potter Party Games

Games are also a good thing to think of in advance. By planning the games early, it gives me time to think on them and come up with some really good options. Some games involve more prep time than others, so the more time you give yourself the more options you will have. It’s extra fun if you can theme the games around the book or specific event you are using for your party.

My go-to games are minute-to-win-it games that I modify to fit the theme. The games are short which makes it easy to keep guests attention, especially if you have a lot of guests. I would only recommend longer games if you have a smaller party. At first, I was worried that adults wouldn’t be invested in the games (some of them are very silly), but they have all seemed to love them and have a ton of fun.

You can make your games individual or team events. When I did the Sorcerer’s Stone party, I wanted to do team games so I could sort everyone into houses (since it was the first book). I then based the games around the different challenges they face to get to the sorcerer’s stone. All of that fit with my theme, but go with whatever you think will fit your party and your guests best.

Prizes

And you can’t forget the prizes! I know we are all adults, but when you have something to aim for, I find that guests are a lot more willing to get involved in the games. They don’t have to be expensive prizes either.

Since I did team games this year, I needed inexpensive prizes so I could get a bunch of them. I went with all Harry Potter themed items from Hot Topic. Online, they have a crazy number of options for Harry Potter stuff (clothing, jewelry, décor, etc.). The prices are quite reasonable too. You could do small gift cards or non-harry potter items as well.

Think about how old your guests are and what will be most interesting to them. Some people will go all out for an HP pin. Others may prefer something a little more useful like socks or a mug.

Wizarding Costumes

Now, Costumes aren’t absolutely necessary, and muggles are 100% welcome at my parties. Costumes do, however, increase the awesomeness level quite a bit. I like to choose a costume for myself based on the theme of my party, but I encourage my guests to wear anything they’d like. If I can get guests to show up in any sort of costume, I am happy.

Naturally, I offer a prize to the best dressed to encourage guests to come in costume and the costumed turnout has improved every year. My guests have really surprised me with how awesome their costumes are, and it’s made the parties all the more fun.

There are always a few guests who don’t dress up, but they see how much fun everyone is having in their costumes. Every year they tell me they will definitely dress up next year and how excited they are for it.

MAKE IT YOUR OWN

The important thing in all of this is to make it your own. If you want to throw every Harry Potter reference imaginable into your party, 100% do it. If you want to get more particular in your theme and base it on a specific book or event, that’s also fantastic. Have fun with it and I guarantee that you and every single one of your guests will enjoy it.