How to Throw a Truly Magical Harry Potter Birthday Party

A few years ago, I was hired to put together a Harry Potter birthday party. My mind quickly exploded with ideas!

There’s something about the magical world that I love bringing to life.

Whether you’re looking to go all out and decorate every room in your house, or put together a simple Harry Potter themed dessert table, I hope you find some inspiration from this post to get you started!

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Harry Potter Fireplace Letters

Letters flying out of a fireplace is a true Harry Potter staple and one that must be incorporated if your home has one.

To give the letters a flying effect, I taped them to jewelry cord and then taped one end inside the fireplace and the other end to the ceiling.

For an added touch of magic, I added fairy lights on several strands with the battery box taped inside the fireplace.

Click here if you’d like to see how I made the letters.

Since this was a sleepover Harry Potter birthday party, I was asked to create a Gryffindor dormitory for the girls to stay in. With a sliding door to put the Fat Lady on, their office was the perfect room to set up as a dorm. Don’t forget the password!

The Gryffindor dorm room was one of my favorite spaces to put together.

Gryffindor Dormitory

The entrance rug is actually a tapestry throw blanket. This would also look great on the wall if you’re able to hang it.

The material to make the Maurraders Map tie blanket came from JOANN Fabrics.

Empty boxes wrapped in brown and white craft paper and tied with string are some easy and cheap filler decorations.

I found some images of the Daily Prophet online and printed them for another fun detail.

Visit your local craft stores during the fall and you’ll be sure to find some great potion bottles!

Don’t forget the sorting hat!

What’s a dorm room without posters!? Target and Walmart usually have at least one Harry Potter poster in their collection, if they don’t have any this season though, Amazon is always an easy search away. You can purchase the house crest poster here.

One of my favorite things I put together were the goodie bags. I loved how they turned out! They fit in perfectly with the room and gave the kids a chance to take a bit of the magic home with them. Click here if you’d like to learn how they were made.

I decided to take my own spin on the floating keys. I knew I wanted to do more than just hang keys from the ceiling. After some time walking the isles of JOANN’s, this is what my brain came up with. Click here if you’d like to learn how it was made.

Every space has a chance for some magic to be added to it! I took full advantage of this large bookshelf, adding some wizarding touches to every area.

Ideas to add to your shelves: lanterns, wand boxes, owls, candles, tea lights, old looking books, pages from The Daily Prophet, house scarf (click here for a tutorial on how to make your own), a snitch, a remembrall, chess board, vases with colored marbles to show house points, gold coins, dragon eggs. Those are most of the things that I added. See what else you can come up with!

Honeydukes Dessert Table

I LOVED how the Honeydukes table turned out! A crazy assortment of candy, guaranteed to get kids bouncing off all the walls! The Every Flavor Bean boxes and chocolate frog boxes were all hand made. Check out the tutorials I have linked on how to make your own.

Next, grab some apothecary jars to fill with an assortment of candy. The ones shown were found at Michaels.

With styrofoam balls, I created a display of lollipops. I found that Dollar Tree had a great selection of fun candy.

Ferrero Rocher balls make the perfect Snitch themed candy with some printed out wings taped on.

Harry Potter Bathroom

Don’t forget about the bathroom! This is an easy room to add a few simple nods towards Harry Potter, such as the Chamber of Secrets message on the mirror and a photo of Moaning Myrtle on the toilet.

Snape’s Potions Class

One of my favorite parts of the night, potions class! I ran through three different “potions” with the party. Two of which they got to take home.

To turn this outdoor patio into a classroom, I covered one of the walls in plastic sheets of fake stone, hung floating candles, set up a table in the back of potion bottles and creepy things, and set up a potion making station at everyone’s seat.

Click here if you’d like to learn how to make the floating candles.

Quidditch Pitch

A Harry Potter party just wouldn’t be complete without Quidditch! If you’re looking to add a set to your yard, click here to see how I put mine together.

This is a great way to get the kids outdoors to run off all of that sugar!

The Golden Snitch Cake

The golden snitch cake was the perfect finale to such a magical day! If you haven’t worked with fondant before don’t sweat it! It was my first time working with it too. Click here to find out how it was made.