PHOTO – Hogwarts Museum

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Harry Potter Party Decorations, Hogwarts Museum, Various Signs 

The planning and preparation for the best ever Harry Potter Birthday party took over a year.  About 4 months before the party date, Teacherman said – why don’t we rent a hall because all this isn’t going to fit in our house or yard!    So we compared the prices for renting tables, chairs and tent (for the yard) and looked around for hall.  It was a lot cheaper to rent the hall.  We found a great one at our local firehouse with a bar and a huge kitchen too.  So our decorating plans were then turned to more grand ideas now that we had lots more space to fill. 

Since I had a year to plan – I asked family and friends, searched closets, basements, and yard sales and found LOTS of stuff very cheap and free that could be used for “magical” decoration – a bit of spray paint, some glitter and a touch of imagination and the ideas are endless. $1 stores were a great place to find odds and ends too.  I also checked ebay often, I found many items sold in large lots that were inexpensive (i.e. Harry Potter pencils, stickers, rubber stamps) – these were great for prizes.  It was also a good place to shop for some of the collectibles I wanted for the musuem (and for my personal collection).

Ballroom Light – we were fortunate that the hall had a ball light, with the lights off, blinds closed and the many dancing lights swirling, and the music Hedwig’s theme playing as the guests arrived it really added to the awesome magical affect.

Balloons – 44? Hedwig flew other the entrance, a Harry Potter cluster of star shaped balloons flew over by the tournament area, another Harry Potter balloon swayed gracefully over the sign in table, and cluster of colorful balloons decorated the center of the bar.

Harry Potter posters – From ebay I ordered appoximately 20 large Harry Potter posters  and had them laminated at staples.  These were hung throughout the hall.

3 Science Boards  - these are BIG and impressive.  Two were used as a backdrop for the sign in table at the entrance -  one had a collection of smaller wizard photos (an ebay purchase).  The other was used for posting signs for Terror Tours (with graphics I found on the internet), the class schedule and menus for the feast and the 3 Broomsticks Inn. The third one I placed at the beginning of Diagon Alley with a collection of signs for each of the shops.

Terrortours 59 Diagon Alley (Not Responsible for Death or Injuries)
Zombie Trail, Come face to face with the living dead!, SPECIAL: 3 nights, 2 days package Special Group Rates Available
Castle Rentals Transylvanian castles for rent,with a guaranteed vampire host. Package deals available for 3-night or 7-night stays
Haunted Bed & Breakfast Guaranteed chain rattling, hair-raising, spookiness.
FULL MOON SPECIAL – Dances with Werewolves Spend your next full moon under the stars and running wild.

12 5-foot blow up wands - these were another ebay find and they were very cool. We used an air compressor to blow them up and then used string to tie them around the hall.

2 VERY Big Cauldrons (bought on sale after Halloween) – one we placed over by the where the wizard games would be held with a fog machine inside (it was very cool!).   The other we placed toward the back of the room near the Hogwarts museum.  We placed the bubble machine to the side of the cauldron (very cool too!) – it couldn’t go inside because the bubbles come out the front of the machine (so the bubbles just hit the side of the cauldron inside and broke)  and if you tipped it up the bubble liquid just spilled out and there wasn’t anything available to prop it up inside the cauldron – but off to the side was just a effective).

(Note: we were going to use dry ice, but the ice store was closed on Sunday, we would have had to buty2 to 3 times more then needed and HOPE it lasted till Sunday, and then it would only give us an hour of smoke, the cost about $100.  For just $100 we were able to get both the fog and bubble machines at a party store and they lasted several hours on one fill up and we now have them to use for all parties in the future.)

Signs: The nice thing about signs is they can be made up on the computer and printed out and don’t really cost much – but add a bit of humor to the overall decor.
Near the entrance I taped up 2 signs with graphics 
Broom Parking – Staff and Guests ONLY Others will be swept away!
In Case of Fire – no flying).
On the bathrooms I put a sign for Witches (ladies’s room) and Wizards (men’s room).
On the two kitchen doors on either side of the bar I put a sign saying “Do Not Disturb – House Elves at Work”
On the first floor where the guests would be entering I made up a sign with arrows pointing in various directions to point to Hogwarts, The Three Broomsticks Inn, Diagon Alley, and Knockturn Alley.
There was also a sign for the Hogwarts Museum (Magical Artifacts on loan from Hogwarts), and every shop also had a sign with a graphic.

Hall Layout – I made a maurauder’s map and copied on parchment to hand out to each guest. I used a word table and small fancy fonts and reduced graphics to put it all together.

The sign in table was at the top of the stairs where the guests entered. To left and in front of the bar we had 4 round tables for the bar with a rectangled reserved table for staff (and various prizes and other important items like the sorting hat and birthday candles). To the left of the bar area we set up tables for the snacks and the four wizard events. In back of the room half was Diagon Alley and the other other half was set up for the classroom.

Sign in table: three staff members (in costume of course) greeted the guests – their name was checked of the list, they received their name tag and a maurauder’s map, and a small bag with 6 wizard coins to shop with (tiny gauze bags and plastic gold coins from Oriental Trading). I also had gotten a wonderful dragon puppet for my friend to wear on her shoulder which was very cute and the kids loved it.

Bar - we put a Harry Potter birthday banner over the bar, Harry Potter window clings, cob webs and spiders on the mirrors behind the bar with a misting cauldron on one side and a misting glass dish held by ceranmic dragons on the other, 6 small golden cauldrons on top of the bar and hanging in front a banner “The Three Broomsticks Inn” and black creepy cloth (from Oriental Trading – tatter web like cloth – looked great!).

Cafe Tables – dark blue round tables cloths, Harry Potter centerpieces (cardboard from ebay), star confettie, and three small star candles in glass holders (from Oriental Trading).

Classroom – Large Hogwarts banner hung from the front of the head table, with three large star candleholders, wizard posters hung behind the table. The four houses each had a table with a tablecloth that was the color for their house. To accent the tables I used a large piece of gold poster board in the center with a Harry Potter centerpiece, star confetti, and two black cauldrons on either side of the centerpiece (having the same center design really helped bring the whole thing together even with the different color tablecloths).

Hogwarts Museum – I am a collector of Harry Potter items so I brought a few to the hall and set up a round table near the classroom area.  I warned suits in the welcome speech that they would “die a most horrible death” if they touched any thing in the museum because it was under a spell of protection.  On the table I had: the Gryffinor sword, Dumbledore’s watch, The Time Turner, Hogwarts chess set, Harry Potter cookie jar, a stuffed Hagrid and Norbert, and various other collectibles (some were items given out to the press at the movie openings, other were just things I liked and had gathered over the years).

Diagon Alley – each shop had a sign with graphics (of  course) and decorative items to go with.  I had started collecting various items from yard sales, closets, etc. (and letting friends, co-workers, etc. know I was looking for odd bottles and misc. items so whenever they were getting rid of something I inherited it).    For the bookstore I brought my collection of Dragonology and Wizardology books and a few others.  For Potion shop we had a large collection of odd jars.  I also got inexpensive jars from the craft store and $1 stores, add plastic spiders, snakes, rats, bats, herbs, etc. and add labels with various potion ingredients (names gotten from the Harry Potter Lexicon). The wand shop I set up the wands in a basket and the wand handout was guarded by a large wooden skull.  The robe shop had various witch hats and robes hanging up behind it.  I also had a dozen inexpensive wizard hats (in case any adult helpers didn’t have a costume they could grab a wizard hat).  The menagerie was decorated with a variety of small stuffed critters I had collected (and after the party I gave the extras away to siblings who came with the parents to pick up their children).  The owl shop was decorated with my collection of stuffed owls (and two yard owl decorations borrowed from my sister).  Weasley’s shop was a large basket of puckering popcorn.  For Honeydukes we had the bags covered so they couldn’t be seen until the shop opened (after the feast) – but on display were large unicorn lollipop (huge multi color spirals) from Oriental Trading, various class jars with $1 dollor store candy in them labeled with names of Honeydukes candy, and 5 lbs. of treacle fudge to be sampled later.  There was also face painting with face painting crayons, tattoos, Harry Potter rubber stamps with nontoxic ink pads, face glitter and jewels (peel and stick on) – these were very popular and there were none left at the end of the party.

Wizard Tournament Area – set up four tables for each event, each house took turns playing for house points.  Used a Harry Potter triangle flag banner, various decorations for each event – big stuffed pumpkin for the pumpkin patch bean bag toss; ghost lights and cutouts for haunted ghost dart board, and star garland for the wishing star toss (these three games came from Oriental Trading).  For the snitch relay – we used brooms and long wooden spoons to carry the snitch (a large styrafoam ball painted in gold paint) from point A to point B, then they had four chances to score use a nerf ball through Quidditch hoops (3 hula hoops braced to the table with BIG clips) into a laundry basket.   The kids really enjoyed it and were eager to earn house points. 

Things I Thought About Getting But Didn’t: 

I didn’t make the Monster Book of Monsters – I had thought about it but decided it was a bit to complicated and focused on others things.  I would have used a large photo album, fur material, some google eyes, big belt, and some felt to make the teeth.  Not sure how it would have turned out, but I had seen a picture of one that was handmade on ebay.

I didn’t get were Golden Goblets with stars and moons – I didn’t find these until I had way too much stuff already.  If I had invited less guests I may have gotten them, but since I was planning on over 20 I figured there were getting enough in their goodies bags already.

I also didn’t get a life size Dobby – though I did consider it several times.  But it cost several hundred dollars and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it – even though having a picture taken with Dobby would have been fun, where I have kept it afterwards.