harry potter party on a budget?!

mrsJef

Morning lovely people!

In the style of MSE i have convinced my to-be 6 year old she does not need to have a party for half the class somewhere expensive and that a party at home would be much more fun!! She is harry potter crazy so we have agreed on that as a theme. However looking around yesterday all the decorations available on-line are quite expensive for what they are. Has anyone got any ideas on how i can make some suitable decorations or seen any on offer anywhere??

All ideas gratefully received with many thanks!
X

Giggle

Could you not see if any friends and family have anything left over from Halloween like broomsticks and witches hats what about going in the woods for some sticks to make into wands

Giggle

There are some great ideas here http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/harry_potter.html

witchwoopiggy

hope this helps loads of ideas, and hope your daughter has great fun

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/features/crafts/potterparties

Giggles_Fairy

For decorations print off pictures of different characters and laminate. You could even hole punch a hole in them and use ribbon to make them into bunting type decoration.

Food wise just relabel some sweets into the same names as some of the Weasley twins inventions. make some sort of punch (alcohol free obviously hahaha) and this could be the polyjuice.

Asking around for people with halloween stuff left over is a brilliant idea. Or check some shops as some might still have halloween stuff on sale! I saw some in Matalan not long ago.

Maybe make some badges for each house and allocate a child to house as they come in? You could just print the bages off the net, stick on cardboard and stick a safety pink on the back. To go with this you could have a big hogwarts signs up?

Some string could be used to make spider webs and cotton wool painted black with some black string legs would do for the spider (unless someone you knew has left over halloween plastic spider!), this could be put up in a corner of your room. If you have a diner table this could be make the look like the great hall? Candles (if you have, or can lend elaborate holders that would be good), white table cloth, place mats etc.

Maybe one of you could dress as Dumbledore and one as McGonagall. Maybe even hagrid if you have someone game to do it!

Oh and if you know anyone who is a good at kniting you could have a look into knitting the house scarfs? I know Griffindor is just two different colours.

Some stuffed toy owls with the sign saying Owlery. This could even be incorporated into a game? Maybe Sirus sends a letter via an owl (from Padfoot!) which says that he thinks a death eater may have discovered his hideaway and could everyone try and cast a spell on the deatheater so he gets confused (pin the wand on the death eater?)

I feel im getting a little carried away hahaha Oh I wish I was 6 and coming to your party!

mrcow

Do a Harry Potter treasure hunt for the party bags or fun toys etc.

Have clues that each lead to the next hiding place - you can make them all Harry Potter themed and rhyme etc. but easy enough for a 6 year old to understand (the easier the better as you have to appleal to all of them). Have the prize in a box at the end for them to find.

You can also do a "make and decorate your own wizard's hat" craft activity for them all to sit down for the party food with.

LJM

print free colour pictures colour and hang/ cobwebspray/silly string you could make cobwebs out of pipe cleaners print off letters and make banners you could make magic wand out of bean cane or twigs also as said set up a craft table get kids to help make decs

elektra-2007

Use orange Juice as Pumpkin Juice, Old glasses with the lenses taken out can be bent into "harry" glasses, do you have any gold coloured chargers from christmas as you could use them to put the food on like they are served at Hogwarts, The Hogwarts banners can be made with paint and old cot sheets, or single sheets cut into 2, if nobody has broom sticks left from halloween you could make your own with sticks and twiggs, what about trying to recreate a game of quiddich (not flying obviously!)

mrsJef

Thanks guys,

some great ideas there! I've managed send out invitations in the style of Hogwarts acceptance letters & have advertised on frecycle for any relevant things that maybe going spare!

I'm going to set up the table as fred & georges sweet shop with all the food things having appropriate names & label the tree in the garden as the whomping willow. We have 'draw the glasses on harry' (instead of pin the tail on the donkey!) and I'm going to make some harry potter bingo cards. Then maybe a craft activity (hats or sweet jar decorating to fill before they go home!)

Thanks again, any further suggestions still welcome!
X

BarbC

Hi Mrs Jef, I did a Harry P party for my eldest a long while ago - its a winner! I put the kiddies in 2houses" ie Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw with printed badges stuck on card on safety pins- cos they all want to be Griffindor and no-one wants Slytherin - took the role of McGonagall and awarded/threatened to deduct Housepoints for good/bad behaviour!! I've never had such a compliant and well behaved crew!! I sent invites on 'scrolls' - PC printed Owl post letters that I ripped roumd the edges and dyed with cold coffee, covered the dining table with a red velvet curtain and did the 'Banquetting hall' thing for food drumsticks/drummers, hunks of bread and cheese, sausages , hot dogs for less adventurous some sarnies, saus rolls and plenty of cakes etc. Drink was 'Butterbeer' - which is anything you like in a fancy metal or glass jug and 'Cider' (appleade). Games were a themed treasure hunt, Potter quiz, wand relay races in the garden,pin the tail on the hippogriff- housepoints awarded all the time of course, and prizes were Potter sweets - can you still get them? and I gave copies of the books instead of party bags. It was a brilliant day, now at secondary school they still talk about it - have a fun time!

midnightraven3

on the chocolate slab bar thread
there is a link somewhere:undecided
i know because i read the whole thing yesterday:o

and its to a poster who did a Harry Potter hamper
she did the best thing ever with sweeties, she bought bags of things like flying saucers, that was one, she put some in a wee bag and called them something from Harry potter

sorry i am making this sound rubbish but it clearly wasnt

another i remember she did was get a box of ferrer rocher (sp)
and take the wee sticky off the top
they then looked like golden snitches:D

she had about 10 different ones
it was great

i think i have been more of a hinderance than helper here:o
but it was so good it was worth mentioning