Harry Potter Halloween Party Ideas

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We host a yearly family Halloween party and our party themes are planned several months in advance with our guests enjoyment fully in mind.  One year we had a Great Gatsby theme, another was a Monster Prom, and another was an Edgar Allen Poe Mask of the Red Death Ball.  Last year, we decided to do a Harry Potter Halloween.  My son and his friends grew up with Harry Potter, so although they are teenagers, they were super excited to participate in a Harry Potter Halloween party, and it turned out to be one of the best parties we’ve had!  These are a few of our Harry Potter Halloween party ideas to help you plan a great party too!

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Harry Potter Halloween Party Ideas

Things we took into consideration when planning our Harry Potter-themed party included how many people to invite, a reasonable party budget, and amount of time needed for decorations and preparing food.  Since we usually have 40-60 people come to our parties, staying on budget was important, but we wanted to make sure the party had a real “Harry Potter” feel.  Good planning, as well as dollar stores, Micheal’s, and Target budget bins became my BFF’s.  I usually start planning our parties several months in advance, so had plenty of time to find unique decorations and other party supplies on sale for my Harry Potter Halloween party ideas. We also ask each family attending our parties to bring a dish, so that helped with food costs.  We provided the chili, hot dogs, a few salads, snacks, drinks, and candy, so had plenty of food!  My husband and son helped to decorate, so the party was a big success!  So…without further ado…here are a few ideas to make your Harry Potter Halloween party a big hit!

The Invitations

If you are going to have an awesome Harry Potter Halloween party, you have to start with great invitations, and the only way to do it is with a letter from Hogwarts!  If you want to see a group of kids go nuts, just hand them this invitation–my sons friends were so excited to finally receive that coveted letter from Hogwarts, that some screamed with delight, and one girl actually cried!  I designed the invitation myself using Harry Potter fonts from here, but you are welcome to download and customize my invitation for your own party. (Once you have downloaded the letter, you can change the fonts to any of the Harry Potter fonts.)  I used paper that looked weathered to help with the authentic look.

I also included a Hogwarts Express train ticket with each invitation.  I printed the train tickets from a template I purchased for $4 from Party Scribbles on Etsy, which she customized for our party.  I printed the invitations on special parchment paper,  and the train tickets on special gold paper, then sealed both in a parchment envelope with a red wax seal, using an H stamp for the seal.

The Decor

Our decor was minimal, but consisted of a few key things:

• Floating Candlesticks
• Honey Dukes Candy Bar
• Posters
• Spiders and Cobwebs
• Other Spooky Decorations

Floating Candlesticks

My husband took on this project after looking at several ideas online (which he did not like).  First, he raided our Christmas decorations for the battery-operated candles that get placed in windows.  If you do not have any candles, stop by your local Target or Home Depot and look for battery-operated candle sticks that can be removed from the base.  Since Christmas decorations usually pop-up a week or two before Halloween, you should have no trouble finding them, but you can also get them from Amazon.  Next, purchase a few boxes of small Command wire hooks, such as these.  We used about sixteen candles, so purchased two packages of hooks.

My husband used fishing line, which he wrapped around the bulb of each candle, then tied a small loop at the top of the fishing line.  Using a ladder, he affixed the wire hooks to the ceiling of our patio, then hooked the fishing line loop to the hook.  Just before the party, he climbed the ladder again to turn each candle on.  As you can see from the photo, the candles appeared to be floating and was especially enchanting once it got dark.

Honey Dukes Candy Bar

I purchased a variety of bulk candy and placed them in glass containers, each with a Honey Duke label (which I got from Bakingdom).  I made sure I had Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans (I mixed in regular Jelly Belly Beans to save money), Fire-Breathing Dragon Drops (Cinnamon hard candy), Butter Beer Drops (Butterscotch hard candy), and Mad Eye Moody Pops.   I set all the jars on a table with plastic scoops in each jar, so the kids could scoop the candy into party bags I had set out.

Posters

I purchased a Sirius Black Prisoner of Azkaban poster from Amazon, which I hung in the front entryway of our house. I found a photo of Bellatrix LaStrange at Azkaban online, which I printed on my own printer.  I also found a Moaning Myrtle photo, which I printed on vellum paper to give it a see-through look, and put her on the bathroom mirror (we had a red light bulb in the bathroom).  I printed a photo of Dumbledore on the vellum paper as well, which I placed on a large mirror we keep in our living room, so it looked like the Mirror of Erised. Last, I found a photo of the Fat Lady, printed it on heavy card stock, and placed it on the front of the guest bathroom door.

Spiders and Cobwebs

 

My husband draped cobweb all over the front and back of our house (outside), and I decorated the fireplace mantel and hallways inside with the cobwebs, placing plastic spiders in the webbing.

We have several large wire posable spiders my husband hung around the patio, and I used Martha Stewart Crafts spiders, creating a trail of spiders going down the wall (Arogog’s children?).

Reuse Old Decorations

I always look for unique decorations at after-Halloween clearance sales, so I can use them for future Halloween parties.  I found these book decorations, owls, and pumpkins to use for our parties, and they were perfect for a Harry Potter theme.

I had plenty of old pumpkins, candles, and other Halloween decor, and decorated with mini purple lights, battery powered candles, and black lights to give our rooms an ethereal look. A basket of mini pumpkins and gourds made a simple but lovely table centerpiece, with a few plastic spiders among the gourds.

Potion Bottles

My other DIY project was the decorative potion bottles.  I purchased a few cheap small glass bottles from Micheal’s (with cork stoppers), and filled them with clear corn syrup.  When the bottles are half filled, I used a funnel to add purple, green, and orange glitter, then filled the bottles another 1/3 full.  After I put the stopper on the bottles securely, I shook the bottles, distributing the glitter throughout the bottle.  I placed the bottles on my fireplace mantel, and under the black lights and purple twinkle lights, the potions glowed and sparkled!

 

Food

As mentioned, I usually have everyone bring a dish, but I also have a few dishes that are popular at all our parties.

• Game Day Chili:  I always make this chili and it is a sure-fire hit.  Guests ask when RSVPing if I will be making my “famous” chili again and I always say yes!
• Hot dogs:  Hot dogs go perfect with chili!  I steam them in a crock pot with a little bit of water to keep them warm.
• Raspberry Razzle Jello Salad:  I take my aunts recipe for Raspberry Razzle and chill it in a brain mold.  At first people don’t know what to do with it, but when they realize it is a tangy-sweet jello treat, they always come back for seconds!
• Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Sticks:  I dip pretzel sticks in melted chocolate, let them set, and refrigerate them on a cookie sheet until the party, then put the pretzels in a tall glass bowl to make them look like magic wands.

I hope these ideas help you create the perfect Harry Potter Halloween party.  For more ideas, please check out the brilliant Harry Potter party tips from A Wild Rumpus!  What other things would you include in your party?

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