Hogwarts Halloween

With the success of the Harry Potter sequels, kids, teens and adults alike will have one more thing in common to look forward to. Celebrate Halloween with a Harry Potter Masquerade Party. You can easily create an invitation on parchment paper at home. Draw a map to your house in invisible ink and call it the Marauder’s Map and roll it up with a brightly colored ribbon like a scroll and hand out to all your invited friends. Make sure you include instructions on how to decipher your secret map.

Since the series is full of varied characters, your guests would not have any trouble picking out their favorite. Encourage all your guests to come dressed up as their favorite Harry Potter character. Dress up you house to look like Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Magickry. On top of your doorway, place a “Platform Nine and Three Quarters” sign and amaze your guests as they walk in to your magically transformed house. Line your halls with hollowed out pumpkins with brightly lit candles to give an eerie sense of the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Hang paper or plastic bats and owls from the ceiling and strategically place stuffed cats, rats and toads on every corner of the rooms.

Create your own Sorting Hat out of old and tattered felt paper and put it in the center of your buffet table to serve as the centerpiece. Sprinkle it with lots of glitter and stars to make it even more magical. You can even hide a small audio tape player underneath the hat to give it that “Talking and Singing” impression. Spray-paint several small plastic Ping-Pong balls with gold paint, and glue golden feathers to each side to form wings and hang them above the table. Glue glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceilings to make it appear as though bewitched. Line your walls with inexpensive framed portraits and lightning bolts.

Transform your yard into a safe Quidditch Field using basketball hoops and non-flying brooms. Place a large jar of jelly beans on one table and have your guests guess the number of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, making sure the winner gets to take the jar home. If you can, have an adult dress as a wizard and have him perform magic tricks. Group your guests according to age as appropriate, and have them battle it out in the Great Harry Potter Trivia Fest.

Serve popcorn in cauldrons and flavor them in magical herb toppings, pumpkin soup and potato salad served in hollowed out pumpkin, crescent rolls and don’t forget the deliciously hot apple cider! Cinnamon buns or apple pie would sure be everyone’s favorite treat and I’m sure not even Harry potter himself can say no to a heaping help of ice cream on top of a generous square of brownie.

Make sure you hand out plastic fiber optic wands and magic stones as party favors before your guests leave for home. Give the smaller kids chocolate coin candies and blowing bubbles as well, to make this their most special Halloween party ever.