Harry Potter Tea Party

Harry Potter 6

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Have a Harry Potter tea party and there’ll be magic in the air!

Here are 10 ideas to start your adventure:

1. Use free clip art from the internet for your invitations. Try either beautiful owl patterns or Hogwarts school colors and top it with Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry. Ask the parents to say the invitations were delivered by an owl while the children were at school. The address of the party is Hogwarts Academy, of course, currently disguised as your Muggle home.

2. Decorations should start at your door with a sign saying Kings Cross Station Platform 9 3/4. If you are having several activities, set up different rooms or areas as Three Broomsticks (kitchen), Daigon Alley (living room), or The Great Hall (dining/family room).

3. If your family loves J. K. Rowling’s world, then watch for post Halloween sales to pick up special effects items for your next Harry Potter tea party. Look for cobwebs, of course, castle-sized spiders, cauldrons, and everything for students of witchcraft and wizardry

4. Need a sorting hat ceremony? Hide a cell phone in the hat and have someone in another room ready to dramatically announce the children’s names and house selections. Does anyone want to be Slytherin? Maybe not.

5. Academic robes are not required for a Harry Potter tea party, but at least one adult should wear one for atmosphere. An easy costume idea is to offer press-on tattoos for the children or set up face painting.

6. Provide the materials for every child to make their own magical hat (paper from midnight, wandering stars, ribbons of dragon breath). Got egg cartons? Let the group use them for the spine of a large paper mache dragon.

7. Does each child need a magic wand? Stock up on Ollivander’s fine hand-made wands. Choose wooden dowels of different sizes and stain them different wood colors. Authenticate them with Celtic woods labels like Alder and Spring Breezes or Oak with Serpent Eggs. And beware the spell that can turn you into a frog.

8. Your menu can be easy, but you can’t use Muggle names. A red soda could be Blood Worm Tonic, gummy worms become Whizzing Worms, cookies are Falling Stars and New Moons, and of course, you'll need a bowl of Bertie Bott's Jelly Beans. Food selections (try to balance out the candy and sweets) can be international to represent all the visiting schools, and a birthday cake should be a Harry Potter theme or wizard’s hat. Check with parents about allergies before planning the menu for your Harry Potter tea party.

9. Which tea to serve? There’s magic in jasmine tea, of course, but you may want to use a plain sencha made at half-strength. You can also use this tea to create pumpkin juice by making it full strength, then adding apple juice and a few tablespoons of canned pumpkin pie mix to a quart. If you give each child a plain ceramic cup and a few pieces of dried tea leaf with warm water, you have set the stage for a Hogwarts class in divination–-reading the tea leaves! Need more classes? Include Muggle geography of tea-producing nations and secret words for younger children to survive table etiquette in the world of Muggles like “May I, Please, and Thank You?”

10. Of all the parties to hire a magician, this is the one. Most magicians can now work within the Hogwarts theme and teach simple “magic” tricks to the children. After the show, have the magician tie balloons into safe swords for everyone.

Check out your Harry Potter costumes here.

Here are more Harry Potter decorations.

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