A Harry Potter Halloween party – complete planning guide

Have you always wanted to host a Harry Potter Halloween party but didn’t know where to start? This post walks you through each step of the planning. I have three boys and they are all huge Harry Potter fans. Luckily, I’m pretty into it as well, so when my youngest requested a Harry Potter party, I was on board. We started planning about 2 weeks in advance, which turned out to be the right amount of time for the level of detail we were hoping to achieve.

The party planning involved purchasing some items online, some easy to intermediate level DIY projects, planning of activities, and very basic food preparation. I consider the décor and atmosphere of any party to be important, so I paid special attention to create a magical environment. This Harry Potter Halloween party is suitable for all ages. Additionally, it lends itself well to being a costume party. Several of the children in attendance had never read the books nor seen the movies and they still had a great time.

*This post contains affiliate links.

The Magical World of Harry Potter

The planning of this party will be so much easier and enjoyable if you have read the books or watched the movies. The 7 books by J.K. Rowling (and 8 movies) create one of the most memorable, creative and wondrous stories of all time. There are so many themes, settings, and story lines in the books to draw party planning inspiration from.

Planning your Harry Potter Halloween party

The first thing I did was to do an internet search on Harry Potter parties and see what ideas others had thought of. I made a list of the most promising (and achievable) ideas considering our budget. I also considered which activities might be most appealing to a group of 10 young boys and girls. When planning your own party, consider the age and number of guests attending.

After I made my list, I created separate categories and to-do lists for my Harry Potter Halloween party: (1) Invitations, (2) Costumes, (3) Décor, (4) Activities, (5) Food, and (6) Loot Bags.

I recommend that you set a budget and make the final decision on what to include in each category at the beginning of the planning stage. Next, create a little schedule of when you want to accomplish each task. Nearly everything, except perishable food prep and hanging the decorations can be done well in advance.

Next, make a list of all the supplies you’ll need for the party. I found that by purchasing most of my supplies online, I was able to find the best prices for things and had access to many interesting items that I couldn’t purchase locally. Not to mention, it saved time and I could shop from the comfort of my own muggle abode. Let me say that the planning process is way more fun if you have the Harry Potter soundtrack playing in the background.

Invitations

I saw several ideas for cute invitations, but I loved the authentic look of the Hogwarts admission letter Harry received as an almost 11-year old living with the Dursleys. Click here for the free admissions letter template. It is editable, which is great since you’ll likely want to include your name and address somewhere on the letter. We also included a Hogwarts Express ticket in each invitation. The free printable Hogwarts Express tickets can be found here.

These letters were a real hit and I had several parents comment that their children were thrilled to receive them. Only one family, who likely wasn’t familiar with Harry Potter, was a little perplexed by the invitation! I suppose it is a little over the top if you’ve never heard of the magical wizarding world.

Costumes

My youngest boys dressed in Harry Potter robes and I wore a Professor McGonagall hat with dark clothing and a shawl. I did a fair bit of research to find great quality affordable costumes and was very happy with what I found. I ordered the Harry Potter Premium Gryffindor Robe Child Costume for about $40. The tie was purchased separately from the robe to get a better-quality one than those included in costume sets.

Harry Potter Halloween party Décor

Front Entrance

I wanted the children to be wowed as soon as they entered the door to our home, and they were. I set up chairs and train station décor in our tiny front hall and the kids had to wait their turn to pass through the brick wall to Diagon Alley. If you have vintage suitcases, bags, or books, they would make a great addition to the space. I used an owl stuffed animal to portray Hedwig. I created the Hogwarts Express sign on a piece of foam board. You can purchase a sign online, but the DIY version is quick and much more affordable.

Dropcloth brick wall (DIY #1)

This faux brick wall is actually made of 2 pieces of cotton canvas, so the children can pass through. I tried it with a single piece of canvas with a slit up the middle and the gap wouldn’t stay nicely closed, so I adjusted to 2 pieces.

Supplies

• Large cotton canvas dropcloth (ours was an old one I had on hand)
• Measuring tape, pencil, scissors
• Burgundy craft paint
• Sponge- 8” by 2.5” (this size is hard to find, so you may need to cut a larger one down to size)
• Paper plate, piece of cardboard
• Pushpins

Instructions

• Measure the dimensions of the opening you want to cover with the fabric wall, adding several inches on to allow for attaching it to the wall and for the several inches of overlap needed for the opening
• Cut drop cloth to size (don’t cut it in half yet)
• Squirt a generous amount of paint onto the paper plate and dip the sponge into it, then dab the sponge on the cardboard to remove excess paint
• Starting in the top left corner, push the paint-covered sponge onto the fabric. Place the next “brick” directly beside the first one, spacing them about an inch apart. You can likely complete 3-4 bricks before you need to reload the sponge.
• Continue this way until you have completed the top row of bricks. Then start the second row of bricks about an inch below the first row. To get a typical offset brick pattern, you’ll want to start the row with a half brick- to do this, tuck a piece of cardboard under the side of the cloth and simply press the paint-covered sponge onto the fabric and cardboard (half of the sponge on each).
• Continue along until you have covered the entire drop cloth
• Allow to dry at least 2 hours, then cut in half vertically
• Hang on the wall using pushpins (as few as you need to get a secure hold and flush appearance), making sure to have an overlap in the middle and to line up the bricks along the opening

Hogwart’s Express sign (DIY #2)

I created this sign on a piece of foam board. For a more long-lasting version, you could do this on a piece of wood.

Supplies

• Piece of foam board (15” by 30”), burgundy colour, or any colour (to be painted burgundy)
• Utility knife, straight edge, and cutting mat (or old cardboard box)
• Burgundy craft paint (same as that used for the DIY brick wall) and gold paint
• 2-inch or larger paintbrush
• Letter stencil set (approximately 2” high letters)
• Stencil brush and paper plate
• Computer and printer
• Cream coloured cardstock (one piece 8.5” by 11”)

Instructions

• Cut the foam board to 15” tall by 30” wide using the utility knife and straight edge
• Unless you were able to purchase burgundy foam board, paint the entire board (and edges) with the burgundy paint. I used two coats. Allow to dry.
• Meanwhile, on your computer create a PicMonkey (or Word doc) with the text “9 ¾”. I used a number height of 4” and the font was Abril Fatface. Create a black ring around the number and then print onto cream craft paper. Alternatively, you could do this by hand with a Sharpie marker.
• Cut out the circle and glue it to your burgundy foam board
• Lay out the position of the HOGWARTS EXPRESS letter stencils at the bottom of the foam board. Use the stencil brush and gold paint to add the gold lettering. Allow to dry about an hour before use. Alternatively, you could use gold letter stickers.

Diagon Alley

You could go all out with this idea, but I just created a single shop in our main hallway from the front hall to the back of the house. I had an extra strip of painted canvas fabric which I used as a floor runner to give the effect of cobblestones. You could cover the walls in your hall with craft paper painted with the faux bricks. Some of the famous shops and businesses of Diagon Alley include:

• Gringott’s Wizarding Bank
• Eeylops Owl Emporium (for owls)
• Ollivanders (for wands)
• Flourish and Blotts (for books)
• Quality Quidditch Supplies (for brooms)
• Slug and Jigger’s Apothecary, Madam Malkin’s (for robes)
• Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes (for joke supplies)

There are many other shops and food venues too, but I chose only to include Ollivanders at the party.

Ollivanders with two L’s

To create the wand shop, I just used a little table with boxes of wands and a message board with the movie quote “The wand chooses the wizard”. I made a quick Ollivanders sign on Bristol board (please excuse the missing L on the sign) for the wall above the table. You can make or purchase the wands. I used a tutorial linked here (DIY project #3). To do this tutorial you will need chopsticks (dollar store), a glue gun and glue, and paint in shades of brown, black, beige, white and gold. It took us about an hour to make a dozen wands. This was a team activity completed with one adult and three children aged 7-13.

Some ready-made options:

Hogwarts- The Great Hall

The Great Hall is one of the most memorable settings in the Harry Potter series and definitely not to be overlooked at any Harry Potter party. Our dining room has a large table and chandelier with many candles, so it lent itself to being portrayed as the Great Hall. If you have a table with leaves, add them all together. Alternatively, push together a couple of tables to make one long one. In the movies, the seating in the Great Hall uses benches, so if you have some in your home, they would make a great addition to the table.

Table décor

I started by adding baskets of food to hint at the bounty of food often seen in the Great Hall in the movies. We studied the films to see what food was typically on the table. Hence, we chose baskets of fruit, grapes, corn and bread. I chose galvanized metal chargers for their rustic, slightly medieval appearance.

Wall décor

I cleared my open shelves of their usual décor and filled them with hammered copper mugs, glass goblets, vintage books, candles, and a love sign with a picture of baby Harry and his parents. Details like this are fun to add and true fans will notice such details. I purchased the four house crests to hang on the wall. The exact house crests can be purchased here. They are decent quality and economical when purchased as a set.

Hogwarts- potions class

Only minimal decorating was completed for potions class. I used an antique silver tray with vintage bottles of liquids and powders. Then I printed off the potion’s labels here. This website also has instructions on how to age your bottles and ideas on what to fill the bottles with. At our party, the potions class was set up at our kitchen island because the plan was to create some pretty big messes here. Alternative sets of free potion labels can be found here and here.

Hogwarts- the girl’s bathroom

No room was left without a few details, which meant including the ghost of moaning Myrtle in the bathroom. I taped a printout of Myrtle on the wall and we played a recording of her ghost-like sounds on a hidden iPod. We also included a nod to The Ministry of Magic with the sign above the toilet.

Hogwarts- the Quidditch pitch

Whenever I host a party for kids, I schedule outdoor time somewhere in the middle of the party, usually just before snack time. Since Quidditch is the sport of choice for young witches and wizards, it was an easy choice. I created the unique Quidditch goal posts using wood and hula hoops nailed together. We used a soccer ball for the quaffle and omitted the bludgers. We did use a golden snitch though.

Hogwarts- herbology class

This was one of my favourite party settings, which was located in our kitchen breakfast area. I used a simple kraft paper runner with flowers, plants, botanical artwork, and terra cotta pots as the centrepiece. For place settings, I used green and white check plates topped with potted mandrake cupcakes (see Food below).

Hogsmeade Village- Honeydukes

We set up a miniature version of Honeydukes beside our kitchen breakfast area. To do this, I assemble all the glass jars and containers I owned and filled them with Harry Potter Inspired treats. This is the list of treats I included (most were purchased at the bulk food store:

• Sherbet lemons (lemon candies)
• Chocolate galleons (chocolate coins in gold foil)
• Every flavour beans (jelly beans)
• Acid pops (lollipops)
• Jelly slugs (jelly worms)
• Magic wands (liquorice sticks)
• Charm crystals (sugar crystal sticks)
• We also served lemonade, cupcakes with gummy worms, and official licensed Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans

Harry Potter Halloween party activities

The time allotment for each activity is provided for planning purposes. We had a two-hour party with lots of short-duration activities.

Entry into the magical world (5 minutes)

When the children first arrived, they had to wait for the hallway to fill with 4 children before going through the brick wall into Diagon Alley (our hallway). When they reached the other side, my son gave each of them a bag of gold (faux gold coins) to make purchases at the party. They had to budget their money to buy a wand and to go shopping for candy at Honeydukes at the end of the party.

Wands (10 minutes)

Next, the children headed down the alley to Ollivanders where they got to choose from custom wands that we had made in advance of the party. If you know the different wands from the movie, it can be quite fun to make and choose one of these wands. My favourite is Luna Lovegood’s wand!

Trivia (10 minutes)

After choosing their wands, the children were welcomed into the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Here, they had a Patronus matching worksheet to fill out while all the guests arrived at the party. The worksheet was a fun little trivia quiz that can be found here. Other worksheets and a great collection of free Harry Potter printables can be found here.

Sorting (10 minutes)

We purchased a talking sorting hat which was a fabulous purchase. Each child sat on the sorting bench and was placed into their respective houses. Of course, everyone wanted to be in Gryffindor! We ended up creating two separate teams for the party and the children collected points throughout for their teams.

Find the winged keys (10 minutes)

A friend loaned us some cute keys that had wings on them made out of masking tape. We created a simple game where the children had to find all the keys that we had hidden. This is a fun activity for kids under the age of 9 or so.

Potions class (10 minutes)

This is an easy activity where I asked the children to go out to the herb garden and return with some magical herbs (basil, mint, lemon balm). We then followed a recipe and crushed up the mint with measured amounts of liquids and powders from our potion bottles. These consisted of vinegar and baking powder, so there was a bit of excitement when the mixtures bubbled over onto the counter.

Spells class (10 minutes)

We have Philips Hue lights installed above our kitchen island so it was an easy task to teach the children the Lumos spell. We have a Harry Potter spellbook, and the children had to follow the exact wand pattern and convincingly say “Lumos” for the lights to turn on. The children were so eager to get in line again for a chance to turn the lights off and for a chance to change the colour of the lights. Meanwhile, my 13-year old was operating the lights through his iPod. Obviously, this activity wouldn’t be as thrilling for older children, but for 7- and 8-year olds, it was very entertaining.

Quidditch (25 minutes)

In preparing for this party I discovered that Quidditch is an actual sport. I simplified the rules for this game and we used just the quaffle and golden snitch. We separated the children into two teams and they had to pass the ball to each other and score points by throwing the ball through the hoops. They could score additional points by finding the golden snitch hidden (very well I might add) somewhere in our yard. This was a fun activity that we concluded with a round of popsicles.

Herbology Class/Snacktime (15 minutes)

I kept the food very simple because that’s how I like to do kid’s parties. That’s why we had some plates of fruit and veggies that weren’t particularly themed. The main food attractions were the cupcakes and the candy bar.

Mandrake cupcakes

I used a standard Devil’s food cake mix and a large cupcake mold to form the base for this fun dessert. Then, I topped the cupcakes with chocolate icing and Oreo cookie crumbs pressed into the icing. Each cupcake was topped with a green gummy baby with a mint stem poking out of it. I “potted” these cupcakes in cute 4” terra cotta pots. The kids loved these because they resemble the screeching mandrakes from Professor Sprout’s Herbology class.

Butterbeer

I tried several recipes for butterbeer that I found on the internet and I didn’t end up using them at the party. Most of them had rum flavouring which was just too strong for children (even though the beverage itself was non-alcoholic of course). Instead, I had a “butterbeer” dispenser containing cold lemonade, which we all enjoyed. You could also use rootbeer for older children/teens or real beer for adults.

Honeydukes Candy Bar (15 minutes)

The money that the children received at the beginning of the party was used here to “purchase” the candy on display. This was one of the kid’s favourite activities.

Harry Potter Halloween party loot bags

We didn’t do traditional loot bags, rather, the children got to take home a custom wand, stuffed owl toy, and a paper bag filled with candy from our DIY Honeydukes shop. I try to avoid plastic dollar store toys for loot bags because they quickly end up broken and in the landfill. Party favour alternatives include a book, notepad and pencils, or craft supplies.

Summary

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our Harry Potter Halloween party. I’ve tried to include as many useful links, products, instructions, and ideas as possible so that you can plan your own Harry Potter Halloween party. Having this party really reinforced how much our family loves Harry Potter.