Ideas for Harry Potter Birthday Party for 5 Year Old

If you haven't read the books or watched the movies I'm guessing your son and guests won't have either. That's good for you!

We held a Harry Potter party for my nephew when he turned 9 (2.5 years ago) and all the kids had at least seen the movies, my nephew, grandson, granddaughter, sister, BIL, and myself all had additionally read the books, so there was pressure to "get it right."

I watched and rewatched scenes to capture the details as I was the one baking the cake and making the candy for our version of Honeydukes, the candy store in Hogsmeade. I made chocolate frogs, molded frogs I dusted with edible gold dust once set, Hedwig suckers, which were white chocolate owls, Acid Pops, which were Charm Pops dampened slightly with a spray mister, then rolled in Pop Rocks and wrapped in pieces of wax paper twisted closed around the stick, pretzel wands dipped in chocolate with the tips tipped in gold edible glitter, and a couple of other treats. I made up treat bags with some of everything in them for kids and adults alike, and placed them in glass jars and bowls on the kitchen island atop a black tablecloth with a ragged handmade sign my grandson drew.

We decorated with twinkling white lights on the ceiling in the living room, and kept the other lights off to give the party a realistic Great Hall feel. We gave the food names related to characters in the movie like Snape's Snow Cones, Potter's Pizza, Dragon's Legs (BBQ'd drumsticks) etc., and printed labels to go in front of each dish of food. Old books were placed in stacks around the room. Brooms were standing in one corner, anything "wizardly" looking was placed randomly. Etc...

The cake was a castle cake, using rice krispie treats for the outer walls covered with a thinned coat of icing to give them a realistic flair. I used Harry Potter Legos to set up scenes in and around the castle. The loot bags had Harry Potter glasses, jelly beans in flavors from the movie, stickers and other things I can't remember, my sister handled those.

There's still some sites with ideas for your party, I can't give you the ones I bookmarked and used or pictures of the cake and candy, the computer they were on crashed :-/ So I've hunted down some others for you:

http://www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com/kid-party.html
http://blog.hwtm.com/2010/04/harry-potter-party-birthday-...
http://remarkable-home.blogspot.com/2012/02/harry-potter-...
http://mjajdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/01/harry-potter-birt...

You can find more by doing a Google search for "Harry Potter party ideas for 5 year old" and feel free to PM me if you have any questions :)

If you can sew, get some cheap thin black material and make capes and send them home in the capes. That's what a child's mom did for her son's 2nd grade birthday party that my son attended. She made an ice cream punch and put dry ice in it - that was a hit! She also was very good at photoshop stuff and took a picture of each child wearing a wizard hat and the cape, and photoshopped it on a thank you for each child coming to the party. I love that picture - it's of my son on one side of the card with the thanks on the other. She used the back of it to reference the gift and say a personal thanks for the gift.

Dawn

Have the kids brings their own "wands" (sticks from home).

Put up a sign that says "Welcome to Hogwarts".

Divide the children up into the different houses.

Play a game where the kids can come up with their own spells - like "rolleramis" to unroll the toilet paper (my son came up with that) and "turkeyfy" when you want a cooked turkey to appear in front of you.

Play a modified version of Quidditch (sp?).

Serve food with the same name as in the books/movies. Set the table with plenty of candles.

That would be great if you could somehow give an owl to each child - but I can see if you get a stuffed owl that could get expensive. (each student at Hotwarts has their own owl to deliver their mail and pass messages along).

Moaning Myrtle hung out in the bathroom. I'm sure there's something fun you can do with that idea.

See ifyou can print a very light picture of Voldemort's head on thin transparent paper and put it up in different places in the house - the window, under a thin tablecloth, on the ceiling.

HP is all about creativity and adventure. We love HP! We've seen all the movies and our 7 yr old is reading his 2nd HP book on his own.

Have fun!

I am sure there are a whole bunch of ideas on Pinterest. Probably it's own section with pictures and recipes.

our library had a harry potter themed party before the 6th book came out. these are the things they did which you could easily encorporate into your party.

potions class mix a potion of 1 drop food coloring and some fizzy clear soda. do this in a clear plastic cup my kids loved it they made blue / green / red sodas with just a drop of coloring.

herbology - plant a seed of some sort (great take home gift)

quidditch - they hung some old fashioned wire coat hangers from the ceiling. with ribbons hanging from the bottom. first pull them it a circle shape. then use small nerf ball to throw through them.

make your own wand. - this was also a big hit. take some sticks from the back yard and some art supplies (ribbon, plastic greenery, glitter etc) let the kids go wild.

you can get the harry potter looking glasses at the dollar stores

and as far as plates etc I bet if you look on ebay you might find some you can use for the cake and just do regular plain plates / napkins.

and last but not least get the books and read them lol they are spectacular

You could have the lights a little low and then use Christmas white lights to decorate.

I just googled "Harry Potter birthday party" and found two websites with themed decorations and tableware and others with party ideas. Good luck!