What better way to celebrate Christmas as a Harry Potter fan than to throw a Yule Ball Celebration and host a Triwizard Tournament! While we’ve thrown several other Harry Potter Parties and Play Days, including a Christmas at Hogwarts Party, this one was specifically themed to the Yule Ball & Book 4’s Tournament! Read on to check out our ideas!
And, while we celebrated this one for the Holidays, you could easily switch this up for another celebration like a winter birthday or baby shower!
DECORATIONS
Luckily, the Yule Ball is decorated in colors and items that can be found in abundance during the holiday season! Deck the halls with silvers, blues, and whites! Add some snowflakes, icicles, or blue and white trees to complete the area!
For this party, we also created some simple paper tree cones using blue and silver wrapping paper. There are definitely some more intricate designs that you can create, but we opted for simpler and easier to create 🙂 We also brought out our blue honeycomb trees (we originally purchased them at Oriental Trading, but they don’t seem to be available anymore. There are some others online: Dusty Blue Honeycomb Trees, 3pk Light Blue Honeycomb Tree, but they look a bit different from the ones we have).
In addition to the trees, we also hung some Paper Snowflakes, placed Glitter Snowflakes on tables, and scattered some Blue, White, and Silver balloons.
THE PHOTO AREA
Photo backdrops are a great way of setting a theme and double as a nice and easy activity! Pick a backdrop that functions as decorative, add a few props to the scene and you’ve got a great place to hang out!
For this party, we brought out our trusty, wintry backdrop: White Frozen Winter Backdrop and laid out some white table covers on the floor for the wintry look. BUT if you want to have more of a Harry Potter themed photo area, there are also some others with more of a nod to the wizard word: Wizard Party Castle Backdrop, Magic Alley Backdrop, King Station Backdrop.
Note, you don’t have to go all out with a photo backdrop stand either. Grab a few pieces of tape and an empty wall & you’re all set!
THE TABLE
With just a few wintry themed items, you can create the perfect party table perfect for a Yule Ball!
We set out a white table cloth and placed some Clear Silver Plastic Plates for each setting. On top, we added crackers wrapped in blue iridescent wrapping paper (similar in look to the traditional English crackers). Then placed out Silver Plastic Cups and Elegant Clear Hard Plastic Wine Glasses Silver Rim. Above each plate, we also created some ‘place cards’ but instead of actual guests’ names, we created some with names of the characters in the books/movies. (It was fun for guests to find or pick a character!). We placed those in Diamond Place Card Holders to keep them upright. On top of Linen-Feel Guest Towels, we added Heavy Duty (Silver) Plastic Silverware, Then we finished each setting with a small, silver, glitter decoration.
In the center, we filled a vase with small blue and silver ornaments. Then we spread out some blue tealights to complete the look.
PARTY FOOD
No party is complete without some party food! You can always serve some typical (or fancier) party food, but you can also keep in theme with a few clever labels or snacks 🙂
There are several foods mentioned in Book 4 (Turkey, Lamb Chops, Drumsticks, Mashed Potatoes, Toffee, Eclairs, etc), so you can definitely stick to foods only mentioned in this book AND still have quite a menu! OR, you could also pull from any other foods mentioned in the entire series – there are quite a few feasts and meals throughout all the books!
ACTIVITY TABLE(S)
We typically set up an activity table for kids to keep entertained while everyone arrives AND after all the games are done. These activities are simple and easy and typically don’t require too much supervision.
- Quill Crafts: In honor of Hermione’s gift to Harry (a luxurious quill), we set out a simple pen quill craft. We’ve done this before in some Harry Potter themed days & the craft is simple & easy! Check out instructions the Make your own Hogwarts-style paper quills on harrypotter.com!
GAMES
What’s a party without some fun and memorable games??? Kids will definitely have fun just running around and coming up with their own games, BUT adding in a few themed games will definitely be a hit with your guests! Here were a few of ours.
As this was a Yule Ball celebration, we decided to host some Triwizard Tournament fun 🙂 We had three games that were loosely based upon the three wizard tasks.
- Dragon Challenge: In this game, we picked one guest to volunteer to be the dragon (we had several volunteers rotate since we also gave them the chance to pick out and keep a dragon mask). Each ‘dragon’ had a Jumbo Golden Egg that they would have to ‘defend’, while another guest tried to take the egg by racing past or distracting the dragon. The game was repeated until everyone got their golden egg! Note: We used jumbo eggs so we could fill it with some Hershey’s Harry Potter Chocolates and mini dragon figurines, but you could also use smaller golden eggs if you want to fill with less candy / trinkets.
- Black Lake: We, like most people, do not have a lake within our living room, so we had to improvise a bit! For the black lake challenge, we filled a large bin with water (if you have one of those small toddler pools that might work too). Then we dropped some ornaments into the bin and had kids try to get them without getting wet (e.g with straws, string, wooden spoons, etc). If you’re looking for some other figurines & have a bigger group, these figurines would work too!
- The Maze: Like the black lake, we unfortunately could not fit an entire maze into the party area. BUT we did create a few mazes using an online Maze Generator and had guests race to the finish!
- Triwizard Cup Search: We have had this Triwizard Cup for quite a while, so you may have seen it in some of our other Harry Potter parties. For this party, we had two versions: one for little toddlers and one for older kids. For the younger ones, we set up the blue tealights as a path leading up to the Triwizard cup! For the older kids, we hid the cup completely & allowed them to find it on their own 🙂 If you don’t have a Triwizard Cup and can’t find one in stores, you could also print out a picture of one and use that instead!
And while we didn’t have these games/activities at our party, you could also add these in for some more party fun.
- Dance Floor: In the words of Professor McGonagall, “The Yule Ball is, first and foremost, a dance.” So, break out the dance moves! Add some fun to it by including some dance games like Freeze Dance, Limbo, or Dance Battles!
- Race to the Triwizard Cup Board Game: For board game fans, this one would be nice to set up & let guests play a round or two!
- Playing Cards: playing cards are a nice thing to spread out when parties have multiple generations. Guests can pick up the cards and play a game or perform card tricks!
GIVEAWAYS AND GOODIE BAGS
What’s a party without a few giveaways 🙂 In addition to any crafts they made and prizes they won, we also gave them some Bertie Botts beans (and some regular jelly beans for those not wanting to taste earwax, mini lego bags, and more chocolate!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you so much for checking out our Harry Potter, Christmas at Hogwarts party. We hope this has helped with your party planning and maybe even inspired more ideas!
If you’re looking for more Harry Potter, feel free to check out our other posts here and follow us on Pinterest.
Happy Party Planning!
