Harry Potter PartyWhen the kids were young I read the Harry Potter books to them.  We only made it through book three before they were off and reading on their own at night.  After we read each book we would watch the movie as a family.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban seemed to take eons to read, because we would go for long periods of not reading it, since the older two are independent readers and have their own chapter books to read.  For some reason, they were more excited about this book than the first two, so I decided to go a bit overboard with our Friday Night Family Movie Night and turn it into a Harry Potter Party!

potterparty 021I found some very cool free printables on the internet, and rushed around this afternoon putting it all together. Which in hindsight, may have been a mistake…the to-do list is out of control. But it was totally worth it when the whole family sat down to watch the movie and the children were giddy with excitement over the special details. I wanted to do more…Michael jokingly harassed me because we didn’t have wizard hats to wear. But I’m telling you, if I had thought of this idea last week I would have gone way more overboard. The internet is full of great inspiration for Harry Potter parties!

On the day of the party we just had one chapter left to read.  Ella and I took turns reading the book aloud while the boys listened, and then we started the movie just moments later.

Harry Potter Party ::

Here are the added touches for our Family Movie Night Harry Potter Party.

Butter Beer...aka Orange Cream Soda in disguise
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Homemade Pumpkin Muffins (with Hogwarts cupcake toppers):
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This was the most un-healthy dinner I’ve made for the kids in a looong time, but hey…it was a party!
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Sun & Stars lights from college & a Harry Potter sign printable:
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UPDATED 2021
Henry and Sam are working their way through the books and so we have decided to start celebrating each book with a family movie night Harry Potter Party!  Here are pictures from our “Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire” celebration, with lots of snacks:

Harry Potter Party Links

GREAT Harry Potter Party Ideas from the Kenton County Public Library

Over the Big Moon Blog: Harry Potter Printables (I got the Bertie’s Beans Label here)

Just Sweet & Simple Blog : Harry Potter Printables (I used their Butter Beer Label, Cupcake Toppers, Invite and More)

My Harry Potter Party blog — wow…these folks went ALL OUT!

And Pinterest is FULL of Harry Potter Party ideas!

And for Harry Potter Costume Ideas, see this post from Halloween 2014 – the year our family dressed up as HP Characters.

Reading through all of these blog posts made me want to go all out tonight. I did what I could, but I had so many more ideas! There will most definitely have to be another Harry Potter Party at this house in the future…