Harry Potter Birthday

My oldest loves reading and has recently discovered the magical world of Harry Potter. This is how we turned our home into Hogwarts to help him celebrate his 9 and 3/4 birthday using inexpensive supplies and limited time. I also made some free coloring pages, craft, as well as many themed party printables that is free to download below as well. Hoping these ideas and printables can help your kids to also enjoy some simple magic and fun.

Decorations:

These flying brooms take less than 15 minutes each to make using pantyhose (of all things), pool noodles, and kraft paper. I also cut up an old tan bedsheet to make the broomsticks appear more brown. You may not need to do this if you luck out and find brown or darker pool noodles but ours were purple. I wrapped each pool noodle in pieces of the bedsheet, securing the ends with brown yarn, then shoved everything into a pantyhose leg. I then cut long fringes out of packaging paper (as we had plenty leftover from our last move) but you could also use brown paper grocery bags or kraft paper and secure them to the end of the broomstick with more yarn, simply by tying some knots. No glue or sewing required and the pantyhose can be found at the Dollar Tree! This is also something kids can make with a little help. Cutting fringes makes for great scissor practice. My kids liked helping me to stretch the pantyhose over everything. The golden snitch is simply a gold balloon blown up with air and a sheet of white printer paper that I cut in half and fringed. Everything was adhered to our ceiling using clear fishing line. This really helped to set the scene in our kitchen. My kids loved these and requested more for play. To make them more durable, I followed the same steps in making their brooms but made the brush part out of felt instead of paper.

My kids helped me to paint an owl on the back of a piece of wood we had. The back happens to be a wooden cutout of Ursula’s head I had previously made for my daughter’s Little Mermaid birthday. We attached and strung these acceptance letters everywhere. I made a very simplified Hogwarts letter seal that is best printed out onto white cardstock and punched out using a 2 inch circle punch. I then attached them to each envelope and hung them all over our living room, using clear fishing wire to hang some up as well. This enabled me to decorate a large space very quickly and inexpensively.

I pulled out some really neat black faux leather fabric I had leftover from my son’s pirate birthday (many years ago) as well as a roll of kraft paper I found at the dollar store and covered some old textbooks that my husband and I have been hoarding to create some easy and fun party decor.

These aren’t exactly the title of the textbooks used at Hogwarts (with the exception of Book of Spells). The rest are titles I just made up to help the books in our home look more like books that one might possibly find at Hogwarts. I found the special Harry P font here. It is free to download for personal use. There are fourteen titles which is best printed out onto a sheet of sticker paper and attached to the spine of any thick textbook. My personal favorite is Parsel Tongue-English Dictionary which I just stuck onto our dictionary.

There are six signs that I made that will print two to a page. This file is best printed out onto cardstock and cut in half. I just used double sided painter’s tape to adhere the welcome, bathroom, and thank you signs to our doors and placed the activity signs in gold frames next to each designated setup. My son’s favorite was the bathroom sign. For more detail on the party activities, free coloring pages, and owl craft, see below.

I made Moaning Myrtle simply by covering a white balloon with white fabric, using black felt for her hair, and adding glasses and her disconsolate expression using black yarn. Her cloak is an old black tee shirt that my son had outgrown and her tie is made out of felt and adhered with hot glue. She was attached to the ceiling using clear fishing line and hovered over the toilet in our guest bathroom.

The spells are best printed out onto white cardstock and then cut out. I pasted each spell onto gold posterboard to add a little more of a magical look. Lastly I made a lightning bolt template to make cuts onto more gold poster board to add scattered large lightning bolts all over the walls of our playroom. The gold poster board can be purchased at the Dollar Tree. As my kids are young, I chose some of the more fun and nicer spells. You won’t find any hexes or really terrible and scary curses.

This file is best printed out onto cardstock, cut, hole punched on top, and strung up using ribbon, yarn, or twine to create a quick birthday banner. The downloaded file will read Happy Birthday with the letters in the Harry P font. I used paper plates and punch balloons (that come in packages of 3) from the dollar store to make the Basilisk and Fawkes. This was a very simple and inexpensive way to create a nice backdrop for our cake table.

Outside, I covered a partially deflated basketball I found in our garage with some gold plastic tablecloth I had leftover from sister’s recent Jasmine birthday. I used the tablecloth to secure two wooden sticks to the side and covered the sticks with a white garbage bag that I cut up and fringed. This hung on the tree in front of our house to help continue the decorations outdoors. My son liked how it appeared to be flying and the wings did look neat when rustled by the wind.

I found free coloring pages at Cool2BKids and used my projector to make large wooden cutouts of Fluffy (above) as well as Dobby (below). I outlined the projected images with a black Sharpie and my kids enjoyed helping me to paint them. I have made numerous cutouts over the years. They make great photo props and are an inexpensive way to decorate our outdoor space.

Party Activities:

The kids colored.

There are 12 spells, that will print one to a page. They are the same spells that are available above with black letters for decorating. Once again, no really evil spells or harmful curses here…. just the fun ones.

I made some personalized coloring pages for the birthday boy featuring wizard hats and spell books. They are part of my personalized Halloween coloring pages that can be found here.

This template is best printed out onto cardstock and given to kids along with a white paper bag (inexpensive white lunch bags from Walmart), and some coffee filters. For the setting of a birthday party, I found it best to use the template to make many cuts out of a pile of construction paper for a quick and easy party activity set up. I used a little wooden tray to contain all of the paper pieces. The kids enjoyed making and flying their owls. They also grabbed feather pens, markers, and crayons to fancy them up further.

I had some bright large feathers in my craft stash and their aunt had gifted them some gel pens. We found that if we took apart the gel pens, we could squish the ink cartridge right into our large feathers and they fit perfectly. If you want to get your kids excited about writing, you need to try this! No mess like using real ink that you have to dip and so easy and fun. The kids wrote nonstop and were so excited they were writing like the students at Hogwarts. The printable book of spells and potions is available here.

I set up this simple craft mainly for the birthday boy’s younger sisters but it was surprisingly really enjoyed by a group of nine-year-old boys. I just placed black plastic sticks we had (from an old fort kit) as well as a pack of plain chopsticks along with various colored pipe cleaners and beads and the kids went to town, personalizing their own wands and also making magical necklaces and bracelets.

I have to add that children should be supervised while playing with these wands and should be reminded not to put them in their mouths or run with them, as unfortunately my youngest ended up injuring her soft palate. Fortunately it was a minor abrasion and nothing serious but it could have been much worse.

I filled various buckets and bins with potion ingredients for the kids to mix and make their own concoctions, recording their unique spells and potions in their books. The kids have really had fun with this set up and have enjoyed a lot of open-ended imaginative and cooperative play here.

You don’t have to go too far to search for potion ingredients. I just made do with what I could find in and around our house. Bursting mushrooms were dried mushrooms I had in the pantry. I use them to make egg rolls. I gathered my daughters’ unicorn and pony toys for unicorn hair. I was thinking of using ginger root for mandrake but didn’t have any so ended up making some by wrapping Poly-Fil with brown and green felt. My kids loved screaming while pretending to uproot them.

Rotten eggs were just colorful plastic eggs leftover from Easter. Crocodile hearts were my daughter’s counting clip cards. Cockroaches were laminated printables from my kids’ measuring bugs activity.

Rose petals were from our garden. Pearl dust was simply pearly white beads. Dragon livers was a bucket filled with my son’s dragon toys. We also used green yarn for frog brains and leftover feathers as porcupine quills.

I used my projector and blew up one of the cupcake toppers I made for my son (see below) to make his pinata. The pinata is made from a large moving cardboard box, covered with white tissue paper, and then covered again with white crepe paper streamer using a few glue sticks. The numbers were cut out of black poster board and glued on top. My kids always enjoy helping me to make and fill these larger than life pinatas. As the cost of making these are next to nothing, we get to splurge a bit on filling them. We filled the birthday boy’s pinata with his favorite candy treats (Reese’s, M&M’s, Twix… and more chocolate), making sure to include some sour candy too for his sisters.

The kids also enjoyed a dragon egg hunt (easter eggs filled with candy), story reading from Dad (which the birthday boy says he has now outgrown), and wiffle ball. At one point, my son was hurt while playing and his friend came waving his wand to heal him.

Food:

This is the menu we served. I always like to incorporate the birthday child’s favorite foods and my kids love helping me to come up with different names for each food and drink to match with our theme. The birthday boy’s favorite food is Orange Chicken so I made a simple version of it in the crockpot. Bertie Botts’ Beans were baked beans. Potter’s Potatoes were twice baked potatoes topped with bacon which is always a popular party food. Ollivander’s Wands were these delicious egg rolls. We also served punch made with ginger ale and sherbet and labeled it Polyjuice.

Here is the birthday boy with his homemade cake. The cake is a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. I purchased these frog molds here, covered the cake in melted chocolate, and decorated with more chocolate frogs. The chocolate frogs were so easy to make. I melted this chocolate in the microwave in the tray it came in, following the directions on the bag, poured it into the mold when the chocolate was smooth, and let it all set in the refrigerator. Twenty minutes later, they were ready to pop out and serve. The number candle was purchased from the Dollar Tree. As it didn’t quite match, I simply painted it with acrylic paint. You can make quick inexpensive custom candles to coordinate with any birthday theme this way.

My son requested red velvet cupcakes. They taste glorious with cream cheese frosting but I used vanilla buttercream as it can last longer when sitting out at room temperature. I made these simple toppers to decorate them. The first file is best printed out onto white cardstock, punched out using a 2 inch circle punch, and then attached to toothpicks with a little scotch tape. The second file is best used as a template to cut out onto gold paper. I used leftover bits of gold poster board I had from making the large lightning bolts decorations above.

These “potion” labels were an easy and quick way to add a bit of fun to plain water bottles. This file is best printed out onto white cardstock and punched out using a 2 inch circle punch. I added some strips of patterned black and white cardstock to some water bottles and affixed the labels on top. The kids enjoyed questioning each other after drinking veritaserum and giggling hysterically after taking sips of laughing potion.

Favors:

As the kids liked their feather pens so much, Grandpa kindly purchased many more feathers and a huge box of pens so that each guest could take home their own “quill” and have refills too if needed. Each child also received these tattoos, beautiful stickers, and filled the rest of their bag with dragon eggs from their hunt, pinata candy, as well as crafts and spell books they made.

My greatest joy in creating these parties for my children is seeing all their excitement and happiness. In the days leading up to his birthday, my son painted his pumpkin to represent Harry and along with his sisters, made a lot of Harry jokes thanks to the Harry Potty sign. My kids still love waving their wands and turning me into stone as well as writing with their feather pens.

I create more printable activities for kids here with the goal of helping to grow kids who love to learn.

To see my other kids’ parties click here.

If you use these printables or party ideas, I would love to see it! Please use #sodangfun on social media, tag me @sodangfun on Instagram, or email me.

I hope this post can help you to create something fun for your young wizard or Potter fan!