harry potter birthday party for 9yo dd, yes or no?

[diamond]

my dd is interested in the harry potter birthday for her 9th. i am not sure most 9yo would know about hp yet? she says her friends dont know about hp? not sure what to do? my kids know all about it and are excited..

[georgiegirl]

Dd has a HP party at 10 and it was awesome! There were 2 kids who didn’t know about HP, but they had a fantastic time nevertheless.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I find it hard to believe that 9yos don’t know HP! There are so many fun ideas for HP parties on Pinterest that require no knowledge in order to have fun. :) go for it!


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[m4nash]

My 3 kids all know about HP even my 7 and 8 year olds. My 8 year old has read the first two books. I think enough 9 year olds will have some idea and even if they don't I think they'll still have fun. I wouldn't over think this. This is your child's party; if they want to do Harry Potter, I say go for it. My kids have been to superhero themed parties or Disney Princess parties before they were into those things and they had fun.

[newnana]

YES! DD is HP obsessed. I had this same question and thank goodness the BBB reassured me, it was fabulous.

Her friends are disinterested in HP but fun because they are her friends so for her last birthday party she requested a HP party because she wanted it. She's a great party planner and helped come up with things to do that would be fun for anyone that didn't require HP knowledge but we could "HPize." She also wanted a sleepover, and do sleepover stuff so we worked that in. Here's some of the stuff we did if it helps:

Scavenger hunt: little creatures we had or additionally acquired from the Dollar Tree that we could mock up and rename as mythical creatures. We called it something Hagrid's Care of Mythical Creatures Class and made a list of what they were looking for and what it was called. Hidden all over the yard. Fake spider= acromantula; rubber snake = basilisk, etc. easy and a little run around time.
Craft: Wand making at Ollivanders- chop sticks, hot glue guns, beads, pipe cleaners, paint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwBVoAVZ1NY
Honeydukes: what kid doesn't love a candy buffet? Again, Dollar tree was our friend. Just made HP name labels for the stuff. We found crayola tongue coloring taffy (spectacular) = transfiguration taffy; Double bubble fizzing gum= fizzing whizbees... you get the idea
Potions class: what kid doesn't love science experiments? just name the potions and potion ingredients something HP ish: elephant toothpaste = exploding elixir; pepper/dish soap/ water finger thing = acromantula egg repellent; washer in a balloon = capture screaming banshees; baking soda, vinegar, paper towel in a ziploc bag that explodes = weasley's wildfire whizbangs

Pinata: we made an umbridge pinata out of a hula girl pinata DD found and was inspired by (and was on clearance at the party store for $4 - woot!); it would be easy to do something else like a voldemort, spider, or something else.

Pizza and butterbeer.

DD wanted to do make up for fun so called it Yule ball prep and they did that while watching the first HP movie. We got a bunch of stuff at the dollar tree so none of the girls shared makeup. "hairy potter" for doing their hair....

Bertie botts every flavor beans game. ewww.

Silly stuff like on the toilet lids things like Moaning Myrtle or "this way to the ministry of magic" with an arrow pointing down.

I'll keep thinking, this was so fun for us to put together together and I know we did a lot. Have fun!!!!

ETA: just remembered we had fillers as I was setting stuff up that DD could grab and do with her friends:
Witch hat with magic words that anyone would know for either pictionary on the dry erase board or charades: spell, wand, potion, etc
Sorting hat: i think this was a questionnaire they did teen girl magazine style to figure out their houses
Pin the nose on Voldemort (funny noses like a clown nose or bunny nose) or pin the scar on harry
HP bingo
And their most common activity in between: DD used a sharpie to turn white balloons into owls. They used their wands to try to keep their owls in the air yelling, "wingardium leviosa"

[squimp]

I find it hard to believe that 9yos don’t know HP! There are so many fun ideas for HP parties on Pinterest that require no knowledge in order to have fun. :) go for it!

I agree with this. How can you be 9 and not know about HP?

My only advice is to give parents some heads up if you plan to show the movies. HP was ruined for DD because she saw the movie at a kindergarten HP party, it scared her so much she never wanted to have anything to do with HP. She was much younger, but thought I would mention it.

[SASM]

Yes!! Even if children do not know about HP (which I doubt), the whole theme would be fun enough for everyone to enjoy! I highly recommend making wands with cooking chopsticks...so much fun! Pinterest has so many awesome HP party ideas...have a wonderful time planning the party!

[ellies mom]

We had a HP party for my DD ninth birthday. The kids had a blast. We ended up having an adult HP that evening because so many of my work friends want to come too. I'm at work now but I will come back and share more details


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[melrose7]

DD went to a Harry Potter party last year for a 10th birthday. We had read only the first book and watched the first movie but it wasn't her kind of think. She still had fun at the party though.

[diamond]

thank you for the positive encouragement. what did your DD wear? if it was a boy Harry potters costume would have been easy? but not sure what to get for DD? Maybe just plain play clothes??

[SnuggleBuggles]

thank you for the positive encouragement. what did your DD wear? if it was a boy Harry potters costume would have been easy? but not sure what to get for DD? Maybe just plain play clothes??

Robes are unisex. :)
There are so many HP themed things out there. I’m sure you could at least find a t with a favorite character of thing.


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[mom2binsd]

If you search a not so frequent poster but long time member, Fairy, had an amazing Harry Potter party, you could try a search for ideas, her party was over the top, but you might get a few ideas.

[ellies mom]

thank you for the positive encouragement. what did your DD wear? if it was a boy Harry potters costume would have been easy? but not sure what to get for DD? Maybe just plain play clothes??

You can get a grey uniform skirt and a white button down shirt from French Toast. You can also order house ties off the internet. I had made DD2 a Hermoine costume for a comic con the month before so I made her a full blown lined robe. You can make one out of a black sheet pretty easily.

The kids decorated wands (chop sticks) with hot glue and paint. We had a potions class (seriously the favorite) with using common ingredients with fancy names. I made a spell book that they could take home. For charms, they colored pre-traced drawings on shrinky-dink paper and shrunk them to make zipper pulls or necklaces. I made floating candles, various candies and butter beer. There were only six kids so I may have gone a bit overboard and made a robe for each kid (that's how I know they are easy and quick).

It was a lot of fun. We added a grown-up version of butterbeer to the adult party and the potions were put to good use again.




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[belovedgandp]

Go for it! Even if kids haven't read the books, they have heard of it or will grasp the basics enough to have fun.

We've seen several in the 8-10 age range through the years in our different friend groups.

[newnana]

DD didn't want to wear her robes or Hermione or Luna costumes to her birthday party (yes, we made all those) because since none of her friends were into HP none would be dressed up. Plus she didn't want to mess any of those precious costumes up with any of the potions class stuff. We had t-shirt's we've made that she wore with a skort and her time turner necklace. We made them so she could personalize what she had on them but Etsy has tons:

Forget a Disney Princess, I want to be Hermione (with Disney Princess in Disney font and Hermione in HP font)
In a world full of Draco's be a Luna
And she made another one with a little quote about what some of the female HP characters have taught her about life next to a pop figure of that character.

I'm having surgery in the morning and will be offline for at least a week if you ask me something and I don't reply, but this will give me something fun to think about!

[azzeps]

My daughter's 8th birthday was a Harry Potter party. It was so much fun. I got her a cloak and tie, my mom knitted her a scarf; she wore it for some photos but not the whole time. We decorated wands, had a scavenger "hunt for the horcrux" and ate snitch cake. All the kids had fun, even if they didn't know about Harry Potter. :)

[magnoliaparadise]

Go for it! My DD (and I) went to a 9 yo Harry Potter birthday party last year and my DD didn't even like HP back then (or now) and loved the party. My DD had not read HP at that time, though knew about it and many of the other friends had read it. My DD had been resistant to reading HP until then. She has now read three books and stopped and still doesn't like it - but she still talks fondly of the party.

I can't remember much about the party, but there were different stations. I remember cup cake making with funny frosting colors and also a really cool science experiment in which the kids mixed ingredients and there was white smoke all over the place. It wasn't baking soda fizzle - it was pretty extreme. The kids were all awed and each had their own. I remember getting the science experiment from the dad after the party, it was so cool.

[klwa]

DD1 (9) loves HP. She dressed up as Hermione for Halloween. Her two best friends haven't been exposed to HP really. But, if DD wanted to do HP birthday, that's what we'd do.

[essnce629]

Our school has a Harry Potter themed read-a-thon every year for the 1st and 3rd graders. They are not reading the HP books (they can read anything), but are sorted into competing HP houses, all the classrooms are transformed with HP decorations, and they have a grand feast at the end and the winners (top reader in each class) get a handmade HP wand. I'm in charge of making the HP wand boxes and another mom is making the wands out of chopsticks. Lots of ideas on Pinterest. I'm making the wand boxes from necktie boxes since I'm too lazy to make diy boxes! I'm spray painting them and lining them with batting and velvet. There's printable decals online to decorate the outside. The read-a-thon started today and most of the kids came to school in HP robes. All the kids are given handmade HP fleece scarves (made by another group of moms) to match the house they've been sorted in. Some kids also wear HP hats and ties. Some kids bring cauldrons and their own wands. It's one of the highlights every school year. The teachers all wear HP robes as well. The kids are all given drinks of Truth Serum (seltzer water) to keep them honest about their reading minutes. My 8.5 year old has never read HP, but because of the read-a-thon he's a big HP fan and so are all his friends. We've also been to Universal Studies HP World several times. He'd love to attend a HP themed birthday party!