9th Birthday Harry Potter Theme

My girls are both mad for Harry Potter, and with my youngest's 8th birthday just around the corner, I thought I'd revisit my older daughter's 9th Harry Potter birthday party to reuse some ideas. Aparecium!

Party: 9th Birthday Party
Location: Sydney, NSW

Theme: Harry Potter
Organised by: Me (Steph Bond-Hutkin, Bondville)

Photography: Steph Bond-Hutkin for Bondville

Invitation: Made using Canva and rolled, delivered by a printable owl.

Cake: Two-tiered Butter Beer cake (just a caramel cake) with caramel buttercream frosting, and caramel sauce dripped over the top. The snitches were Ferrero Rocher chocoates with the wrapper removed, and I attached wings that I cut from white cardboard.

Party Food: Hedwig owl marshmallow treats. These are just plain marshmallows and I drew on owl faces using edible ink. I like that one is a bit different.

Simple Maltezers. We also had a bowl of chocolate-coated honeycomb.

Pensieve blueberry jelly (jello) with whipped cream on top. Gaze into the bowl to reveal all!

Blueberries disappeared quick sticks.

Butter Beer (creaming soda spiders with vanilla ice cream) was served in glass mugs with reusable straws (these were jam jar glasses with handles and I removed the lids).

Decorations: Of course all new Hogwarts students must enter via platform 9 3/4.

The table settings were easy peasy for this party. We used a plain black table cloth, and every place setting had a 'silver' plate, black napkin and goblet and of course a personal wand (the wand chooses the owner!). To make the wand, I bought some chopsticks that I drizzled with white candle wax. And of course everyone needed their own golden snitch (Ferrero Rocher with white cardboard wings).

We already had owl Beanie Boos which had to make an appearance.

We also printed out some images that might be seen around Hogwarts to hand on the wall - portraits of Rowena Ravenclaw and the Fat Lady, and nearly Headless Nick.

We happened to have a gothic chandelier in our attic that worked beautifully to set the scene at Hogwarts. I hung white candles with fishing line to look like they were floating over the proceedings. It was also easy to make a Gryffindor house banner using a piece of black felt and a printed paper Gryffindor crest attached with double-sided sticky tape. I glued the banner to a spare chopstick to hang.

Games/activities: The games were key for this party. My husband taught the Potions Class (science experiments in disguise) and the girls mixed their potions in small juice bottles with vintage-style paper labels. Head teacher Voldemort's Cousin got into the spirit in fancy dress too.

My husband also made a simple quiditch game using small wreaths from a craft store, attached to a log.

Party gift/favour: We gave out simple black and white polka dot goodie bags filled with Maltezers and Ferrero Rocher golden snitches.

Tip: You really don't need too much food; we kept the amount of treats restrained but focused on quality. I also add a bit of foliage to any of our birthday parties to make them feel a bit more grown-up.

Something Special: The girls were given Harry Potter Gryffindor cloaks for my daughter's birthday from their grandparents, which really set the scene.

I hope you could find an idea or two to use for your own Harry Potter birthday party. For more Real Australian Kids' Parties, head to the party page here on Bondville.

Images: Steph Bond-Hutkin for Bondville