We’ve held this party twice because it’s so much fun. The first time was for our seven-year-old son. Eight years later, we held it for our eight-year-old daughter. They wanted to take their friends on a trip around the world for their birthday party. –And both of them wanted to be the pilot! This was a fantastic backyard party with 10-20 kids. However, I think it would work for any number of guests. It lends itself to flexibility, as you can choose to visit wherever you want! Here is what we did:
Invitation
We sent all the kids a boarding pass with a brief note explaining the party. Ours was super simple. You can find all kinds of examples online.
The Airport
When the kids arrived, they began their trip at the travel agent’s desk. Each guest was given a passport and a Brown Paper Bag Suitcase for their souvenirs. We had them draw their own “photograph” and complete all the information inside the passport. Then they went through security. My husband and 9-year-old son put on blue suit coats and penciled-in mustaches so they would look official. They used the buzzer from the board game “Taboo” as their metal detector.
The Airplane
The guests then boarded the plane. We lined our patio with folding chairs like you can see in the photo below. One side of the plane was the brick wall of our house. The front and back were covered with king-sized sheets, and the outside wall of the plane were two long pieces of butcher paper with a plane painted on them. It was one fast jet!
After everyone boarded the plane, the pilot (birthday kid) took his seat, and the flight attendant went over the rules of the flight. My husband also played the part of the flight attendant. The kids thought it was hilarious. (They didn’t yet know he was going to play the part of several more characters throughout the evening.) We turned on the vacuum to signal take-off and landing of the plane. The flight attendant served drinks during one flight and snacks during another. Our plane made three stops.
Stop #1: Hawaii
In Hawaii, the locals taught our travelers how to hula dance. Grandma, dad, and an aunt helped with the hula lessons, congo line, and ukulele music. All the kids received a lei to wear. I was surprised how much everyone loved this stop. All the kids really loved the dancing.
Stop #2: Antarctica
In Antarctica, the kids built “snow structures”. We divided the group into several teams and gave them each a baking sheet with foam plates and bowls, white packing peanuts, shaving cream, and batting. They had about ten minutes to build a snow structure. They were very proud of their creations. (Warning: shaving cream will take the finish off of baking pans, so cover them with aluminum foil or use boxes or plastic trays. I learned this the hard way.)
Stop #3: Mexico
In Mexico, the kids met Pablo, who looked a lot like the flight attendant, security guard, and Hawaiian dance instructor. He hung a pinata in the tree and let everyone take swings at it until it was broken.
After the flight home, the kids were given some spending money to purchase a few items at the Airport Gift Shop. Then we opened gifts and had cake and ice cream. The cake was round and frosted to look like the planet earth. I stuck a little toy airplane on top. Somehow, I failed to photograph it. That happens a lot at our house. Sorry!
If you have a child who has so many party ideas that he just can’t choose one, here is an idea for you: Throw a Favorites Party! We did this for our 5-year-old son and it was delightful. First we brainstormed with him. He told us all of his favorite things and every party idea that popped in his head. After the brainstorm, he narrowed his list to Pokemon, water fights, soccer, sugar cookies, dad’s stories, Big Band music, costumes, and balloons.
Does your party need to stick with a theme? Absolutely not! If the birthday kid is happy, it’s a great party! Finn’s party activities included decorating large sugar cookies, playing balloon volleyball, throwing darts at balloons, and playing soccer. We had his grandpa and dad play their trombones and the kids all danced to the music.
We made a Pokémon piñata and a Pokémon cake. We painted the guests’ faces and invited them to wear costumes if they wished. (The birthday boy wore a dinosaur suit for most of the party.)
Dad told one of his famous stories while the kids drank root beer. We finished off with a big water fight.
All of these were Finn’s favorite things and activities. He loved it… which made it a marvelous party! It was definitely one of his favorites!
Most kids love Harry Potter and all things magical. Actually, I should restate that… Everybody loves Harry Potter! This party was quite a bit of work, but one of the best we’ve ever had. We needed a lot of extra adult help, so we recruited grandparents, aunts, uncles, and a few neighbors to be Hogwarts teachers. They all dressed up like their assigned character. It really was so much fun! Here’s what we did.
Invitations
Our invitations were mailed from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They were acceptance letters to the school, followed by information about the party. If you have an owl, you could ask him to deliver the letters for you. I’ve attached our version here. Hogwarts Acceptance Letter
Party Agenda
As the children arrived, the kids stopped at Gringotts Bank. They received a bag of 10 gold-painted rocks (gravel) to use for their shopping in Diagon Alley. They then boarded the Hogwarts Express and headed to Diagon Alley.
Hogwarts Express
Our party was in January so we needed to hold it indoors. We decided that we would need a larger space than our home could offer, so we held the party in our church gym. The church has large rolling carts for folding chairs and tables. We turned one of these carts into a train. I sketched the front of a train engine and taped it to the handle of the cart. We left one table on the cart, and the kids sat on in. My husband pushed the passengers all around the gym (a few at a time, as they arrived) until they reached Diagon Alley. The passengers exited the train and went shopping!
Diagon Alley
We turned one section of the gym into Diagon Alley. (You could certainly use one room in your house or one section of your yard.)
Our shops included:
Ollivander’s (Maker of Fine Wands)
I purchased wooden dowels, cut them into four 12-18” sticks and painted them to look like wands. My kids helped with this and had a lot of fun making each one unique. We used lots of different colors- including a lot of gold and silver. Here’s another fun idea for wands from The Crafty Teacher.Make Your Own Magic Wand
Flourish & Blotts Bookseller (Quills)
We made each guest a quill by hot gluing a feather to a ball-point pen. We also gave them a little grade card with their list of classes.
Magical Menagerie (Pet Store)
One of the stores in Diagon Alley is the pet shop. We let the children each make a puppet for their pet. These were brown paper bag puppets with paper print-outs I found online. The choices were a frog, owl, cat, or mouse. The kids colored, pasted, and named their pet. When we held this party a second time, I bought stuffed animals (owls, cats, and toads) for the Menagerie.
Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions
A month before the party, I recruited my mother-in-law to help me prepare. She is an excellent seamstress and a good sport about helping with my wild ideas. Together, we made over 30 black robes in various sizes. These were about as simple as they could be. We went through her boxes of old fabric and used anything we could find that was black. I went to the fabric store and bought all the black clearance fabric. We even cut up a few black tablecloths. We bought a roll of black ribbon and a bunch of cheap black shoelaces for the ties at the neck. We just made up a pattern from an old Halloween cloak pattern. It was basically a front, back, and two sleeves. We didn’t mess with collars or zippers. If the fabric didn’t fray, we didn’t hem it. Here’s an example.
After the children finished their shopping in Diagon Alley, they went to the Banquet Room at Hogwarts. There, they were sorted into houses and enjoyed a “Welcome Back to School Banquet”.
Sorting Hat/House Crests
I went to Google images and printed the crest of each Hogwarts House on cardstock: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. My kids colored the crests and we attached a safety pin to each. During the party, we had each guest sit on a chair and put the sorting hat on. My husband acted as the Sorting Hat’s voice and declared the House appointment for each guest. We then pinned the appropriate crest to the child’s robe. This assigned each guest to a “team”, which they stayed with as they rotated from class to class throughout the party. My sister owned an actual costume Sorting Hat, but you could use any witch’s hat.
Banquet Room
I enlisted the help of two aunts to make the food for the night. Earlier in the day I made two bowls of bread dough. That night, the aunts fried over 50 large scones. The kids ate the scones with honey, veggies, fruit, and pumpkin juice (vanilla ice cream with orange soda- like a root beer float but with orange Crush.) That was the food for the night!
After the banquet, the guests split for classes. Our adult helpers served as the teachers of the classes.
Classes
Hagrid’s Hut: Care of Magical Creatures
Blindfold one child. Assign all other children an animal. If they can read, give them a piece of paper with the name of the animal written on it. (One will be an owl.) The children all make the noise of their animal. The blindfolded child has to wander around until he finds the owl.
McGonagall’s Classroom: Transfiguration
Print lots of pictures of characters from the Harry Potter movies. Pin these pictures on each person’s back. The kids ask each other questions about themselves (the photo on their back) to see who they have transfigured into. Examples of questions: Am I a student? Am I a teacher? Am I Harry’s friend? Do I support Voldemort?
Flitwick’s Classroom: Charms
You will need a CD player and either Harry Potter music or Halloween music. The kids dance to the music. When the teacher yells “Immobulus!” the kids have to freeze (hold still) or they are out. Some of our kids got bored after a while with this one so we followed up with a bit of wand practice. Our Flitwick knew some good Harry Potter “magic words”, so he had the kids practice waving their wands, casting spells on each other. The kids really loved pretending they had been “stupified”, etc.
Snape’s Dungeon- Potions
We asked a cousin to play the part of Snape. He went online and figured out a bunch of fun science experiments. We labeled bottles with weird names from the books. He poured and mixed and impressed the kids with his “magic”. You could definitely hire a mad scientist for this part, but the kids were really impressed with the experiments he found online… simple but fantastic!
Trelawney’s Classroom- Divination
Recruit an especially animated teacher for this class. The teacher will act as a fortune teller. Our Professor Trelawney had enormous glasses. You’ll want to limit this classroom to small groups of less than six at a time. We made red and blue cards with messages on one side. The professor spread them out on the table, face down. The kids would ask yes/no questions and the teacher would wave her hands over the cards. If they asked a “Will I…?” question, she would choose a blue card. If they asked a “Should I…?” question, she would pick a red card. It works just like a Magic 8 Ball. If she had extra time, she would read their palms and tell them about their life and love lines. Here’s a printable of our cards. Professor Trelawny’s Cards
Large Group Games
After these classes, we brought all of the Houses together for two large group games. The first is perfect for a younger group. The second is better for older kids as it’s more complicated.
Defense Against the Dark Arts- You can choose your favorite Dark Arts professor to host.
I purchased a bunch of long green balloons (the kind you can twist into flower and poodle shapes). These were our snakes (very dark magical snakes!) We inflated them with a balloon pump and tied them to the kids’ ankles. (The aunts who had made scones were our balloon inflaters.) The game was to try to stomp other people’s balloons before yours were popped. The kids loved it.
Quidditch Game
We played an excellent game of Muggle Quidditch based on the instructions from this video. There are many alternative ways to play Quidditch that you can find online.
Cake
The party ended with our birthday boy opening gifts, blowing out candles, and serving cake. Our cake was simply a really long, curvy line of green frosted cupcakes. The lead cupcake had two ping pong ball eyes and a long licorice tongue sticking out the front. Harry Potter is a parcel tongue, so he just loves a cake that looks like a big snake (and so does Voldemort and Nagini.)
