How to throw a wonderful Harry Potter party for an eleven year old. Simple accessible Harry Potter themed birthday party activities that delight.

Harry Potter Party For An Eleven Year Old

My daughter Emma reads every book she can get her hands on, but the Harry Potter series is her absolute favorite. This year she turned 11 years old – the age Harry is when he first discovers Hogwarts. Of course, we threw a Harry Potter themed birthday party.

We had a lot of fun planning this party! Major inspiration came from the Harry Potter party my friend LiEr put together with her daughter Emily. Hooray for marvelously creative friends!

We turned our condo into a mix of Hogwarts and Diagon Alley for the party. Emma welcomed her friends with letters welcoming them to Hogwarts, including materials lists. The kids loved this light box, which I was lucky enough to win at last year’s SNAP! conference. Emma is still sad that we can’t make that conference this year (I took her last year). Maybe next year?

This was our second round throwing Harry Potter birthday party – the first round was Emma’s seventh birthday. I’m still partial to the easy wand decorating activity we did that year, and we used the same cake (but with a gluten free mix this time).

Draw a Magical Creature Harry Potter Party Activity

This simple draw a magical creature printable is the only thing I came up with for the party. Emma could have made it, but it was a last minute addition, and she was busy with school. I always have a simple activity for kids who race through everything else or show up early / stay late. This printable combined with Sargent Art’s wonderful gel pens (which we had been conveniently sent) filled that purpose neatly.

Only a few kids used this printable, although I’ve noticed my kids pulling out extras since the parties. Some kids drew random pictures, others drew characters from the Harry Potter books. Seven-year-old Lily drew herself riding a flying horse, and this morning Anna drew a couple of magical elves on a leftover sheet of paper.

Creative Writing Harry Potter Party Activity for Eleven-year-olds

Emma loves writing, and so do many of her friends. She came up with this Daily Prophet activity. I thought it was pretty cool. Her friends LOVED it. We had this activity set up in Emma’s room, and they all took turns adding to it. Now it’s a fun souvenir for Emma from the party.

The Monster Book of Monsters

Emma got this idea from Lier’s daughter Emily. You can find Emily’s monster book tutorial here. We took inspiration from their post and turned this into a party activity. Here is Emma’s Monster Book Tutorial.

DIY Wizard Wands

Emma first learned how to make Harry Potter wands from her cousins. She also pored over the tutorial in The Unofficial Guide to Crafting the World of Harry Potter. She has her own approach, and I wrote up a tutorial on how to make DIY Harry Potter wands Emma style. The wands are painted using Sargent Art Metallic Acrylic Paint. We were sent this paint for use in crafting posts on this blog. It is the best metallic paint I’ve found for kids. It cleans up with soap and water before drying, but also leaves a permanent finish. It’s also non-toxic.

These wands were a HUGE hit, particularly since we printed out lists of spells from the Harry Potter books. The kids spent ages learning and practicing spells on one another.

Pygmy Puffs and Cauldrons

Emma really wanted Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans at her party. The yucky ones taste pretty awful, and they are expensive. We compromised by mixing a few boxes in with regular jelly beans in these little cauldrons. Emma’s friends had a blast taste testing jelly beans at the party.

Emma loved Emily’s pygmy puffs, but she decided they were too much work to make. Instead, she stuck googly eyes on glitter pom poms. She did make a cute “care of pygmy puffs” printable, but forgot to give it out. Oops! A few friends found it at the end of the party, and loved it.

Wizard Hats

This is the one idea we copied exactly from Emily’s Harry Potter party. I used LiEr’s wizard hats tutorial. I only got seven hats made, and we had thirty kids at the party. We decided to turn the hats into a raffle party prize. I love the note Emma wrote:

Sorry for the inconvenience, but this shop is low on hats. If you want one, please enter in the raffle. Thank you! – Madame Malkins

Gold Galleons

All four of my children spent hours engraving the words “one galleon” and a smiley face on these coins. They used this wonderful air hardening white clay to make the coins (sent to us by Sargent Art). I tried using a metallic spray paint, but I don’t love how it turned out. I should have stuck with Sargent Art’s metallic acrylic paint. LiEr has a much simpler approach to making galleons.

Have you ever thrown a Harry Potter party for an eleven year old? I see at least a couple more parties with this theme in our future, so I’d love to hear of any activities you have.  Please share in the comments below, or on my Facebook page. You can also tag me on Instagram. Sign up for my newsletter to receive book recommendations, crafts, activities, and parenting tips in your inbox every week.