Sweet Frugal Life

Fun ideas for a Harry Potter birthday party!

My youngest turned 10 last week and he really wanted a Harry Potter themed birthday party.  As a huge Harry Potter fan myself, I was so excited to make his dreams become a reality!  One of the best things about throwing a Harry Potter birthday party is that there are just SO many fun activities you can do.  We had so much fun looking up ideas, planning the party together. and making “magic” happen.

The party was a huge success and I’m so excited to share all the nitty gritty details with you today!

Harry Potter Party Decorations

The decorations for this party were very simple.  Basically all I did was splurge on a Platform 9 3/4 sign for our front door, and placed a few candles on the table (easy peasy is my jam).  The kids loved walking through the platform curtain and I’m so happy I bought it!  My son now has it hanging in his bedroom doorway.  It’s so cute!

Sorting Hat Cupcakes

The party started with our Sorting Hat Cupcakes.  This was probably my favorite part of the entire party!  I knew I wanted to sort everyone into a house, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to do that.  But, then I came across the idea to use Sorting Hat Cupcakes.

These were a huge hit and I’m so glad we went this direction.

But, I have to give a little disclaimer!  I am by no means a professional cake decorator or baker!  But, I do like trying to find budget friendly ways to make my kids dreams come true!  And fortunately, even though these cupcakes did not look perfect….my Harry Potter fan LOVED them….and that’s really all that mattered.

How To Make Sorting Hat Cupcakes

Sorting hat cupcakes are so easy to make!  Just bake cupcakes according to your favorite cake recipe instructions. 

Once the cupcakes are baked and cooled, take a spoon and gently spoon out some of the middle of the cupcake.

Next, mix up 4 different colors of frosting.  One will be blue (for Ravenclaw house), one red (for Gryffindor house), another yellow (for Hufflepuff house), and the last green (for Slytherin house).  Which are, obviously, the different colors of the four houses in Harry Potter.  I really like this frosting recipe and then I used food coloring to make the different colors.

After you’ve made your frosting it’s time to fill the cupcakes.  Put a different color of frosting into the middle of each cupcake. 

Frost the cupcake with white frosting, making sure to cover the colored frosting.  Then, put half an Oreo on top of the frosting.  This will be the first part of your sorting hat.

Lastly, add a Hershey kiss on top of the Oreo half.  I had to put a little bit of frosting on the bottom of the kiss to make sure it stuck to the oreo.  And ta-dah!  Your sorting hat cupcakes are done!

After singing Happy Birthday I let each of the kids randomly choose a cupcake.  Whichever color of frosting was inside their cupcake was the house that they would be in.  They loved getting to take off the sorting hat to see which house they were in.  It was such a fun activity!

I forgot to take a picture of the kids finding out what house they are in, but here is a picture of the Great Hall before our guests arrived.

Harry Potter Party Activities

After the kids were sorted into their houses and finished eating their cupcakes we started the activities.  Each activity was in a different room and represented a different Hogwarts Class.  I pinned our class schedule onto a bulletin board to display and the kids loved looking to see the different classes for the day.  If you want this class schedule, you can grab it for free here:  Harry Potter Class Schedule Printable

History of Magic

Our first class was the History of Magic.  In the History of Magic class we learned about the famous wizard who defeated Voldemort….I’m talking about Harry Potter of course!

After learning about Harry Potter we played the game, Pin the Scar on Harry.  My husband drew the poster for me (because he is much more artistic than I am) and I printed out some lightning bolt scars.  Yay for team effort!  This game was a lot of fun, you just can’t beat the tried and true classic!

Potions

Next up on the schedule was Potions.  The kids absolutely LOVED this class and it turned out even better than I had imagined!

I wanted to do a simple science experiment, but with big results.  So, I decided to do an old favorite of mixing vinegar and baking soda together.  When you combine the vinegar and baking soda together it bubbles up really big.  The dish soap makes it more bubbly, and the rest of the ingredients are just for fun!  I printed up a potions card to display, and you can print it out for free here:   Harry Potter Growth Potion.

Unicorn Potion:  Vinegar

Dragons Blood:  Food Coloring

Spider Venom:  Dish Soap

Gillyweed:  Oregano (although the kids all let me know gillyweed is suppose to be slimy…you win some and you lose some)

Crushed Bones:  Baking Soda

To set up potions class, I bought these science mixing cups from Amazon.  Then I printed out labels for each of the ingredients and taped them to the cups.

Potions class was outside (because I knew it would be messy!).  Each party guest started with a small mason jar and a stirring stick (the stirring sticks came with the science mixing cups I had bought).  

Then, we brought out a new ingredient one by one as they stirred it all together.   Make sure to add the baking soda last for the big surprise.  The entire solution will foam over the mason jars.  The kids were all shocked and surprised at the result!  It was a huge hit and fun to see their reactions!

• Related:  Budget Friendly Birthday Traditions for Kids

Divinations

Next up was Divinations class.  This class was another huge hit!

To prepare in advance I made this fortune teller guide.

The night before the party I put a small drop of food coloring into 8 different plastic cups, one for each child coming.  The food coloring needs to dry completely before adding anything else to the cup, so doing this the night before is necessary.  Then, right before divination class began I filled the cups up with ice to hide the food coloring at the bottom.

I wanted to make this experience really fun for the kids.  So, I poured some sprite into a large bowl and then added a dry ice block to make it foggy.  The kids LOVED this!

I handed each of the kids one of the cups I had prepped earlier.  Then one by one I spooned sprite into each cup.  We had to wait a few minutes for the fog to clear but once it did the sprite had changed colors (thanks to the dried food coloring).  We were able to use the color in the cup and fortune teller guide to tell each of the kids their fortunes.  It was so fun!

Charms Class

After divination we went to charms class.  Earlier in the week my son had made wands for each of the party guests and we let everyone choose a wand for charms class.  I found a Wand Motion Chart from The Scrap Shoppe Blog and gave one to each kid.  Together we practiced a few charms and spells, and the kids had fun practicing the different wand motions.

• Related:  DIY Harry Potter Wand

Defense Against The Dark Arts

Last, but not least we went to Defense Against The Dark Arts class.  I thought it would be fun to have a pinata in this class for the kids to “battle.”  I found this spider pinata on Amazon and decided it would be perfect!  After coloring in the face (to make it more spooky) and filling it with candy we were ready to go!

Everyone got a turn to hit the spider with a bat, and then we let the birthday boy finish it off.  The kids loved grabbing the candy with their Harry Potter goody bag.

The Party Was A Hit

The kids had so much fun at our Harry Potter themed party.  I couldn’t have asked for it to go any better!  Let me know if any of these ideas helped you plan your own party!  I’d love to hear how they worked out.

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I hope you enjoyed these Harry Potter Theme Party ideas!