2 Witches Blog » Harry Potter Party Diagon Alley Plans

Jan

23rd

Harry Potter Party Diagon Alley Plans

Category: Events & Outings | Written by Lady Rose

Since we are renting a hall for our BIG Harry Potter Party (to celebrate my daughter’s 11 birthday in May) – I have had to rethink some of my original plans for decorating that I had when it was going to be at my house. It is both exciting to have so much room to use and overwhelming trying to figure out how to fill the space and give it a Harry Potter atmosphere with out breaking the bank with expensive stuff, but also not just using crepe paper and balloons.

There will be four areas of the Hall – Diagon Alley, The Three Broomsticks Inn, The Hogwarts Classroom, and the Wizard Tournament Area.

Luckily I have collected a lot of odds and ends over the years – so I can use items I already for some of the displays.

Diagon Alley will be at the top of the steps as you enter the room (the room is on the second floor). The first table will have one of my good friends there as the greeter, who will hand out small bags of gold coins for the kids to use in the their shopping spree at the various shops. She will also give them a large white shopping bag that has a large lable on it with a clip art wizard saying “I shopped at Diagon Alley May 2007″ and room to add their name (so no one looses their goodie bag). On this first table I will have two large display boards (kind used for school science fairs) with signs for the various shops as well as funny signs for various vacations offered by Terror Tours (all of which I made on the computer using clip art and fancy fonts – i.e. Dances with Werewolfs, Zombie Trails, etc.). Having the boards also hides some of what lies behind them so the kids will be surprised as they turn the corner and find two rows of tables that they will walk between to shop (creating an “alley”).

Ollivanders – each student will buy a wand (made from chopsticks and wooden beads for handle). Each wand will have a tag saying what wood and core it is made from, and will be individually wrapped in tissue paper. I have a couple of wands I will have on display that came in “official” wand boxes.

Flourish & Botts and Scribbulus Everchanging Inks – each student will recieve a large 42 pg. Hogwarts Encyclopedia of Magic (which I put together with various info., Harry Potter type recipes and clip art, etc. and will be having copied at stables, using for the cover heat sensitive paper that changes colors when touched for a magical affect) and an inexpensive quill pen (I got a couple dozen from ebay very cheap). I will have various books on display that I have already - such as Dragonology, Wizardology, a book on fairies, and of course all the Harry Potter Books.

The Daily Prophet – a free copy of the daily prophet (one page two sided that I created on the computer with funny ads and articles, a word search), with entry forms for 4 door prizes.

Free Magical Face Painting and Tattoos – my sister and her friend are going to help out here. I have several Harry Potter tattoos and HP stamp kits with ink that can be used on skin, face painting crayons for simple magical designs, and a some glitter and gem face makeup kits, and 3 mirrors (from the Dollar Store).

Slug and Jiggers Apothecary — the students will buy their cauldrons here filled with a few potion ingredients (eye of newt (a plastic eyeball), flow in the dark spiders, snakes, and frogs — all of which I got very inexpensively from Oriental Trading). I will have on display a stone mortar and pestle and lots of various odd jars I’ve been collecting for the past several months with labels of various potion ingredients and potions (labels created on the computer and information is easily looked up at the Harry Potter Lexicon).

Magical Menagerie, Eeylops Owl Emporium, and Wesley’s Wizard Wheezes — I will be setting up a display of various stuffed critters we have, plus a few owls. There will also be a big basket of free pigmy puffs (puff balls with glued on google eyes) from Wisley’s Wizard Wheezes for each student.

Honeydukes will be closed (until 6 pm because I don’t want the kids to eat all that candy BEFORE classes and the big feast) — but I will have a LOT of large glass jars on display with various candies in them (with appropriate Harry Potter type labels of course — like Canary Creams, Licorice Wands, Treacle Fudge, etc.) I will have a tablecloth covering the goodie bags and the free samples. Each goodie bag will have several pieces of official Harry Potter candy (small box of bertie bott beans, chocolate frog, acid pop, cockroach cluster, fizzing whizzbees, droobles best blowing gum that I ordered from Amason – which is actaully one of the most expensive investments for this party, all total about $400 worth), as well as a few items I am making (peppermint cream toads & sugar quilles) or found substitutes for (ice mice -putting a label on white gummy mice I found at the Dollar Store) and unicorn horns (spiral multi-color lollipop) – these were so pretty I just couldn’t resist, and the extras will look great as part of the display.

There will also be lots of treacle fudge (chocolate fudge with golded “treacle” syrup added) and other candies in bowls that they can sample.

Along with two big cauldrons we got at Halloween that I hope to have billowing smoke (dry ice), and the lights turned off with window blinds drawn and the overhead disco ball on — for a soft, magical lighting affect, and of course the sound track playing for the first movie — I hope this first event of the day (Shopping at Diagon Alley) will set the appropriate magical atmosphere and get everyone in a Harry Potter Party state of mind.

I’ll be posting more of my decorating plans and of course all about the 9 classes later on.

Magically yours, Lady Rose

For all the details about the party see: Harry Potter Birthday Party