20+ Harry Potter Halloween Party Ideas For Adults

If you’re hosting a Harry Potter Halloween party, you’ll need some props to help set the scene. Here you’ll find all kinds of Harry Potter party ideas for decorations, printables, table settings and food that will turn your living room into the Hogwarts great hall.

20+ awesome Harry Potter party ideas

Every year I pick a theme for my Halloween party, and a couple of years ago, I decided to do a Harry Potter party.

It’s all about witchcraft and wizardry (with a few ghosts thrown in) so it’s the perfect Halloween party theme.

Having said that, many of my Harry Potter decorations aren’t really Halloween-specific (they just go with the theme). So you could easily use them for a birthday party, anniversary or any other time you’re throwing a Hogwarts event.

This was a party for adults, so we didn’t have any games. But a lot of the decor and food ideas would still work for kids.

I also made a video of the decorations where you can see the whole room set up:

Okay, let’s get on with the specifics of my Harry Potter Halloween party ideas. And I’m warning you now…this is a long one!

Harry Potter decor ideas

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In case you’re not familiar with my parties, let me tell you now that I always go over the top on the decorations. And my Harry Potter party was no exception!

Platform 9 3/4 entrance

Platform 9 3/4 entrance to a Harry Potter party with trunk and Hedwig owl in a cage

To make a proper entrance to the Harry Potter Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, I had people walk through the Platform 9 3/4 wall to come in the front door…just like they do in the movie.

There are a lot of tutorials out there on how to make a wall like this yourself.

But I found a Harry Potter shower curtain (this one* is similar) which didn’t cost very much and I figured it was worth it for all the time it would save.

Then I just screwed a couple of hooks into the frame of my front door and hung it up. You could also hang a tension-rod (or shower rod) across the door way if you don’t want to make any holes.

The coat check

Harry Potter party coat check with witch hats and broom sticks on the wall

Once inside, guests could hang their witch hats and park their broomsticks.

This coat check isn’t strictly from the book or the movie, but I think it goes with the theme.

Invisibility cloaks printable sign

I also made an invisibility cloak printable (available for download below).

Halloween party coat check attendant witch skeleton

And added a skeleton coat check attendant.

Again, not really movie-specific but I couldn’t help myself.

DIY floating witch hats used as hanging decorations at a Harry Potter party

Then I hung witch hats* from the ceiling. They are meant for kid’s parties so they were very inexpensive.

To make them into hanging decorations, I used a needle to pull fishing line through the top of the hat and tied the ends to create a loop.

Then I screwed cup hooks into the ceiling to hang them from, but if you don’t want to make holes you could probably use Command Hooks.

The Great Hall

Then my guests made their way into The Great Hall (in other words, my living room). This is where the real decorating fun began!

I knew the decorations were a success when one of my friends said “I can’t tell what’s real and what’s part of the Harry Potter party decor”.

Stone walls

Harry Pottery party great hall decorations

The first requirement was to turn my walls to stone.

I’ve done this before for other Halloween parties, so I knew just the thing: this stone wall scene setter*.

Even better? I saved the scene setters from the last time I did this so I didn’t have to buy anything new.

The trick to making this look good is to cover all of your walls. If you leave parts as your normal decor, it just doesn’t have the same effect.

You can find out how to install scene setters here.

Night sky ceiling

Harry Potter party night sky ceiling

I did a similar thing for the night sky ceiling.

I bought rolls of this starry night paper* and stapled them to the ceiling. (If the paper is out of stock, you can use the vinyl version*, too).

Yes, that’s kind of like wallpapering the ceiling, and it’s a total pain to put up (with lots of swearing involved).

But it looks awesome when it’s done!

Floating candles

Floating candles used as hanging decorations at a Harry Potter party

Of course, the Great Hall wouldn’t be complete without the floating candles.

I already owned a bunch of black battery-operated candles* (but you could also use white ones* like the movie).

In either case, getting ones with a remote will make it a lot easier to turn them all on.

To hang them, I screwed hooks into the ceiling, then tied fishing line around the bottom of the candle flame and hung them up there.

Hanging flames

Hanging flames on the wall

You may have already noticed the next one of my Harry Potter party ideas: The hanging flames that you see all around the Harry Potter Great Hall.

For this I hung up these fake flame Halloween props*. I already owned a few of these so I just had to add a couple more.

For the ones in front of the windows, I used S hooks to hang them from the curtain rod. For the others, I screwed hooks into the wall (you could probably also use Command Hooks if you don’t want to make holes).

The great thing about having a scene setter, is you can cut a small slit in the plastic to slide the electrical cord through so no-one can see it hanging down.

I also swapped out the light bulbs in my regular light fixtures to use these colored LED bulbs*. They come with a remote that lets you change the color of the light, so I made them all orange to look like flames, too.

DIY floating pumpkins

Harry Potter movie Halloween scene with floating pumpkins

Since this was a Halloween party, I decided to use the Great Hall Halloween scene from the movie.

I did half of the room in floating pumpkins…partly because I like the idea of it, and partly because I didn’t have enough candles to do the whole room.

Pumpkins hanging from the ceiling

To make the pumpkins, I bought 12″ orange paper lanterns* and used a black sharpie to draw on the pumpkin faces.

Or if you don’t want to decorate your own, you can buy these ones* that already have the pumpkin faces on them.

Then I hung them from the ceiling with fishing line and hooks, same as the candles.

Finally I put 3 or 4 battery operated tealight candles inside each of the paper lanterns to light them up.

These actually weren’t strong enough to make the pumpkins glow as much as I would have liked. If I were doing it again, I would find a different lighting mechanism. I think hang-down light cords* would work better and I would run them under the ceiling paper so they aren’t too noticeable.

The Hogwarts school banner

Hogwarts banner with flames beneath it

Another effective Harry Potter decor idea is to hang a Hogwarts school banner* with some flames under it. These signs are so inexpensive, it’s not really worth trying to make them.

I hung this one on the wall behind the Gryffindor table, but you could put it anywhere that you have space (I probably would put it closer to the entrance if there was a good place to do that).

Flying ghosts

To mimic the Hogwarts ghosts, I pointed 2 of these ghost motion lights* at the wall so the ghosts would look like they were flying up to the ceiling.

This is really hard to show in a picture, so watch the video above if you want to see what they look like.

Spooky portraits

Stone wall scene setter with portraits

Outside of the great hall, Hogwarts has many large pictures hanging in the hallways. So I decorated the hallway to my bathroom with old-school spooky pictures, too.

These ones* are also scene setters so they are easy to tape up and don’t cost very much money.

Shelf decor

Great hall made with stone wall scene setters, floating candles and a Slytherin tablescape

Since I left the shelving in my living room uncovered, I replaced all of the usual accessories with Harry Potter decor, like potion jars, more portraits and spell books (I got them at Michael’s during their Halloween season sale for next to nothing).

Potion books, hanging flame decoration and Free a House Elf printable sign on a shelf

It was also the perfect place to put up a sign to free a house elf.

Adding these kinds of small details is what makes people says they can’t tell what is real and what isn’t when they walk into your party.

Third floor out of bounds sign

"The third floor corridor is out of bounds" sign hung in front of a hallway

Since most of us have some parts of the house that we don’t want party guests to visit, this “third floor out of bounds” sign comes in handy.

I hung black lace curtains across the hallway entrance to my office and pinned the sign to it. And it worked…no-one even tried to go there.

The moving staircases

Harry Potter party brick wall scene setter with picture of "moving" stairs

Okay, so I don’t really have moving staircases in my house. But this add-on scene setter of the spooky staircase* looks like it could move.

And it happens to be on the door to the bathroom…so it does move if someone opens the door…

Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff & Ravenclaw table decor

Harry Potter movie great hall scene with long tables

I don’t have enough space in my house for the long tables like they have in the movie.

So I settled for 4 smaller tables, and decorated each of them in the colors of one of the Hogwarts House crests.

This gave me the perfect excuse to create 4 different Harry Potter table settings (and you know how much I love creating tablescapes!)

Gryffindor tablescape with red chair sash and black chair covers

I did want to have some continuity between the tables so there are some consistent elements across all of them:

Below you’ll get an idea of what each of the house tables looked like, but you can see more details on my Harry Potter table decor page.

Gryffindor table

Red and gold Gryffindor table setting with printable crest pinned to the front of the red table runner

The Gryffindor house colors are red and gold.

So I went with a red table runner, napkins and chair sashes as well as pink goblets. Gold chargers and cutlery finished the table setting.

Slytherin table

Green and silver Slytherin table setting

The Slytherin house colors are green and silver.

A green runner, napkins, chair sashes and goblets went along with silver chargers and cutlery to create this tablescape.

Hufflepuff table

Yellow and black Hufflepuff table decorations

The Hufflepuff house colors are yellow and black.

Since the plates were already black, I didn’t use a charger on this table. But I did add a black candlestick in the middle with the yellow runner, napkins and chair sashes.

Ravenclaw table

Blue Ravenclaw house table setting

The Ravenclaw house colors are blue and bronze (I went with gold since I don’t have any bronze table accessories).

A blue runner, napkins and chair sashes were paired with blue water glasses as well as gold chargers and cutlery to complete this table setting.

Honeyduke’s candy bar

Honeydukes sign with flame decoration hanging under it

You can’t have a Halloween party (or any other type of party in my opinion) without some candy! (even if it is a party for adults).

So I created a Honeydukes sweet shop candy bar by printing off some pink and green signs (you can find the link to get them in the Printables section), and filling up with wizardry candies.

If you want a more extensive list of the products the original shop carried, you can find it on the Harry Potter fandom website.

Honeydukes candy bar with licorice wands, acid pops and fainting fancies candies
  • Golden snitches (find out more about them below)
  • Licorice wands
  • Acid pops (tootsie pops)
  • Fainting fancies (chocolates)
Honeydukes candy bar with Bertie Bott's every flavor beans, lemon drops, cockroach clusters and Drooble's best blowing gum
  • Cockroach clusters (turtles)
  • Lemon drops (Dumbledore’s favorite!)
  • Drooble’s best blowing gum (gum balls)
  • Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans* (jelly beans) – One of my friends brought over the jelly belly Bertie’s Bots all flavored beans which were a big hit. Everyone wanted to see who was going to get the nasty flavors. Of course, you can just go with regular jelly beans.
  • Chocolate frogs – Okay, this one was on the “to do” list and I never got to it. But I did actually buy the frog mold* from Amazon.

DIY Golden Snitches

DIY golden snitches in box

Since we didn’t play Quidditch, making edible golden snitches seemed like the next best thing.

I got the idea to use Ferrero Rocher chocolates on Cooking Classy. She also has a butter beer recipe and some other Harry Potter party ideas you might want to try, so be sure to check that out.

Get the DIY tutorial for how I made them (and the printable for the wings) HERE.

Harry Potter party food ideas

Harry Potter cupcakes
©Luana – stock.adobe.com

Since the Hogwarts Great Hall is known for its feasts, I chose food that suited the theme.

I always serve buffet style for these kinds of parties so here’s what we had (sorry I forgot to take a picture it):

Harry Potter party broomsticks made from Reese's cups and pretzels
  • Harry Potter broomsticks – just stick a straight pretzel into a mini Reese’s peanut butter cup.
butter beer jello shots
Image and recipe from princesspinkygirl.com
  • Butterbeer jello shots – you can’t have a Harry Potter without butterbeer. And I love to serve jello shots at parties. So combining the two just seems like a really good idea.

Printables and fonts

Harry Potter printable signs

I created quite a few printables (as you’ve seen above) using fonts like “Parry Hotter”. (In case you’re not sure what they all were, you can see pictures of them all together on our Harry Potter printables page.)

They’re available to print in our free subscribers-only resource library (which you can find HERE).

If you’re already a member, you can find the password at the bottom of any of our emails.

If you’re not a member, sign up for our weekly newsletter below and we’ll send you the password to get access to all of our printables.

Sources

Here are the products I used to create this party:

Vintage Brown Brick Wall Shower Curtain Platform 9 and 3/4 of King's Cross Station Secret Passage to Magic School Bathroom Decorative Sets Polyester 70 x 70 Inches with Hooks, Black Brown
Platform 9 and 3/4 King's Cross, photo booth props brick wall background, suitable for outdoor and indoor use, fan love, birthday gifts, holiday gifts, party supplies.
Gemmy Industries Hk Chasing Ghosts Lightshow Projector
CybrTrayd Life Of Party Molds A126 Frog Animal Chocolate Candy Mold
Jelly Belly Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans - 20 Harry Potter Flavors (Pack of 2)
Harry Potter Hogwart's Printed Wall Banner, 20 x 30-Inches
Stairway, Window & Torch Props Party Accessory (1 count) (9/Pkg)
Extension Hanging Lantern Cord Cable, HESSION 5.9ft Lamp Cord -MAX 360W - On/Off Switch E26/E27 Black Pendant Lighting with Plug-in Cord 3-Pack
10 PCS Halloween Pumpkin Paper Lantern for Halloween Party Parties Garden Decoration, 12 Inches (Orange)
Just Artifacts 10-Inch Orange Chinese Japanese Paper Lanterns (Set of 5, Orange)
3D Fake Fire Flame Hanging Lamp Decoration,110V Artificial Flickering Flame Campfire 3D Decorative Night Light Realistic Torch Light Table Lamp Stage Effect Light for Christmas Party Festival Decor
Flameless LED Taper Candle Lights, 12PCS Battery Operated Candles for Party, Classroom, Wedding, Christmas Decorations
Beistle Brick Stone Wall Photography Backdrop Textured Look Photo Op Background for Weddings-Halloween Party Decorations, 4' x 30', Gray/Black
Big Mo’s Toys Halloween Witch Hats Costumes For Kids – Varied Designs 10 Pack

Other Harry Potter party ideas you might like

These are my other Harry Potter posts in case you missed them:

Have comments or questions about our Harry Potter Halloween party ideas? Tell us in the section below.


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Harry Potter party ideas

This post was originally published on October 25, 2018 but was updated with new content on January 21, 2024.


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2 Comments

  1. Billie Jo says:

    What a wonderful set up! Wow. One of my girls has been planning for her HP bday party for the last 8 months (and she still has a year to go before it happens) for her 11th bday. Definitely going to be using some of your tips! Simply amazing!

    1. Thanks, Billie Jo! I had a lot of fun decorating for this party, and everyone loved it. It sounds like your daughter is well organized, so you have some time to put it together 🙂 Hope she has a happy birthday when the time comes.