Are you thinking of throwing a virtual Harry Potter birthday party? If your kids are like mine, obsessed with Harry Potter then a virtual Harry Potter birthday party is a great idea. With the Covid-19 pandemic raging, throwing a virtual Harry Potter birthday party is a safe way to celebrate your child’s birthday. However throwing a virtual birthday party is a lot more challenging than throwing an in-person birthday party. When hosting a virtual birthday party you need to really make sure that your birthday party activities are engaging enough to keep your party guests attention. Plus it’s important to choose birthday party activities that will not turn out to be a burden for the parents at home. Your child’s birthday party should not require a lot of adult supervision and clean up. When I hosted my daughter’s virtual Harry Potter birthday party, I put a lot of thought, research and planning to make sure the birthday party activities are fun and engaging for her party guests. I’m sharing with you some ideas on how to host a fun and engaging virtual Harry Potter birthday party.
How to Host a Successful Virtual Birthday Party
The number one criteria for a successful virtual birthday party is that it should be fun and engaging for the party guests. When you host a virtual birthday party, don’t expect your party to be as long as in-person birthday parties. Depending on the age of your party guests, you need to take into account your party guests’ average attention span. According to childhood development experts, attention span for children is generally two to three minutes per year of their age. That means, if you are hosting a party for 10 year old kids, limit your birthday party activities to 20-30 minutes per activity. After that, you risk losing their attention. You will need to move on to another activity to keep them engaged. Also, you should make sure your birthday party activities are easy enough for your party guests to do independently requiring minimal adult supervision. After all, the last thing you want to do is to create extra work for the parents at home! For example, do you really want your party guests making complicated Harry Potter crafts or mixing Harry Potter potions as birthday activities? Imagine the clean up and adult supervision required! The parents will not be happy! Your goal is to have virtual birthday party activities that are fun for the kids and at the same time, not a hassle for the parents. The key to a successful virtual birthday party is to keep your birthday party activities age appropriate, engaging and fun. Below you will find Harry Potter birthday party activities for your child’s virtual Harry Potter birthday party. These Harry Potter birthday party activities are fun, engaging and requires minimal adult supervision- perfect for virtual birthday parties!
Virtual Harry Potter Birthday Party Activities
Below you will find Harry Potter Birthday party activities for your child’s virtual birthday party. Some of these virtual Harry Potter birthday party activities are more appropriate for younger children, while some of these birthday party activities are more appropriate for older children. Not all of the birthday party activities are appropriate for all guests, some will only work if your guests are Harry Potter fans. It’s important for you to know your party guests’ age and interest in Harry Potter to decide which birthday party activity makes sense for your child’s Harry Potter birthday party.
Watch a Virtual Harry Potter Magic Show
Entertain your birthday party guests with a virtual Harry Potter magic show. The easiest way to do this is to hire a professional magician to perform a Harry Potter magic show for your child’s virtual birthday party. However, if you have wizarding skills, you should do the entertaining. I’m sure the kids will enjoy your virtual Harry Potter magic show! Say Lumos and switch on your light up magic wand. Perform Wingardium Leviosa and make objects levitate. Since it’s a virtual magic show on Zoom, you can prepare your magic tricks in advance by tying objects with invisible thread to make items levitate. Evanesco will make something disappear. Buy a magic kit and there will surely be a disappearing trick. If you are not a highly skilled wizard, you can still entertain your birthday party guests with simple magic tricks using this beginners magic kit and add a Harry Potter spin to it. Impress your muggle guests with these magic lights. Get creative and have fun! Your party guests will enjoy watching your virtual Harry Potter magic show on Zoom. Make your magic show interactive and engaging with audience participation. Throw in Harry Potter trivia during your magic show. Ask your party guests Harry Potter trivia questions, you can even give out small prizes that you can mail to them. Make your guests laugh with Harry Potter jokes. The best part about a Harry Potter magic show is that even if you have party guests that are not familiar with Harry Potter, they will still have a great time at the party. Plus, parents will love the virtual Harry Potter magic show because there is no mess and no adult supervision required! Keep in mind children’s attention span, you don’t need a long virtual Harry Potter Magic show for your show to be fun and engaging!
Watch a Virtual Harry Potter Potions Show
Entertain your birthday party guests with a virtual Harry Potter Potions show. Similar to the virtual magic show, a virtual Harry Potter Potions show is an engaging birthday party activity. The easiest way to do this is to hire a professional party entertainer to perform a virtual Harry Potter themed science show. Or if you are a whiz in potions, you can perform science experiments virtually with the help of science kits like National Geographic Science Magic Kit. Instead of beakers and test tubes, conduct your experiments in cauldrons so it’s Harry Potter themed. Don’t forget to look the part with your light up magic wand and robe. Your birthday party guests will have a blast watching your virtual Harry Potter Potions Show. And the parents will thank you because there is no mess and no cleanup involved. Again, keep in mind children’s attention span, you don’t need a long virtual Harry Potter Potions show to keep it engaging and fun for your virtual birthday party guests.
Make Harry Potter Origami
The Harry Potter Magic show and Harry Potter Potions show are ideal for younger kids. If your party guests are older (10 years old and up) and they like arts and crafts, have your party guests create age-appropriate arts and crafts projects. Harry Potter origami projects are fun and challenging enough to keep your party guests engaged. I recommend using the Harry Potter Origami book as a guide for Harry Potter origami projects. The Harry Potter Origami book shows you step by step how to make 15 Harry Potter origami projects. Your party guests will have a lot of fun making Harry Potter items and animals like the Golden Snitch, Sorting Hat, Owl and Hippogriff. What I like about the Harry Potter Origami book is there is a difficulty rating assigned to each origami project so you can start with an easy origami project first. Then depending on the age and skill of your party guests, you can move on to harder origami projects. Remember, if in doubt, stick with easier origami projects so it’s not a burden for the parents at home. Your party guests should be able to do their Harry Potter origami projects on their own without asking their parents for help. On the day of the party, all you have to do is to demonstrate Harry Potter origami projects via Zoom. You will need to plan in advance the logistics on how to get the origami paper to your guests. At the back of the book, there are origami paper for you to use for each project. You can make copies of the origami paper and mail it to your guests in advance or email the paper template to your guests for them to print out. Another idea is to send each guest a Harry Potter Origami book so they have their own book to follow along plus they can use the origami paper at the back of the book. The Harry Potter origami book can double as your child’s birthday party favor.
Watch a Harry Potter Movie During Your Child’s Birthday Party
Watching a Harry Potter movie is another easy virtual birthday party idea suitable for guests of all ages. Have your birthday party guests log into Zoom so the kids can chat while watching a Harry Potter movie together. Watching a movie works well for virtual birthday parties. The only foreseeable problem that you may encounter is that your guests may not have streaming service or on-demand video access to watch Harry Potter movies. You can solve this by mailing Harry Potter Movie DVDs to your birthday party guests in advance. Harry Potter DVDs are fairly inexpensive and can double as your child’s birthday party favor.
Play Kahoot During Your Child’s Harry Potter Birthday Party
Play Harry Potter Kahoot during your child’s birthday party. Playing Kahoot is a fun virtual birthday party activity if your child and all party guests are Harry Potter fans, however, if some of your guests are not Harry Potter fans, I suggest you do another birthday party activity. Kahoot is basically an online quiz platform where players play against each other. Most likely your child and your guests are familiar with Kahoot because Kahoot is commonly used at schools as an educational tool. Playing Kahoot will bring out everyone’s competitive side. Kahoot is a fast paced game, it will surely make your child’s virtual birthday party lively.
Before the party, create a few Harry Potter Kahoot Quizzes using Harry Potter trivia questions. As the host, you will get a Kahoot game pin that you give to your birthday party guests so they can join your Kahoot game. Note that there is a limit on the maximum number of players per Kahoot game depending on the mode in which you host your Kahoot game. If you have a personal Kahoot account you can host 10 to 50 players per game. The free Kahoot account gives you a maximum of 10 players per game but if you want to host more than 10 players you will need to upgrade to the higher membership tiers. If you don’t want to upgrade to the higher tiers, you can have 2 hosts and run multiple games at the same time and your party guests can switch between Kahoot games. Your birthday party guests will have a lot of fun playing Harry Potter trivia on Kahoot. Just keep in mind that Kahoot is best for Harry Potter fans and older kids (9 years old and up).
Harry Potter Birthday Party Favors for Virtual Parties
Just because you are hosting a virtual Harry Potter birthday party doesn’t mean you skip the party favors. All you have to do is to plan in advance so you have party favors for your guests. You can either mail birthday party favors or hand deliver party favors to your guests. The good thing about hosting a virtual Harry Potter birthday party is you have a lot of party favor options to choose from.
Harry Potter Party Favors that can be Mailed
If you plan to mail party favors to your guests, then Harry Potter books are a good choice. I like the Lego Harry Potter books that comes with a mini-figure or the Harry Potter sticker books. If your party guests like to draw, you can give them How to Draw Harry Potter books. For younger kids, Harry Potter Activity Books are always fun. If you are looking for small party favors that fit inside envelopes, Harry Potter Magnetic bookmarks and Harry Potter tattoos are compact and easy to mail with the invitation or thank you cards.
Harry Potter Party Favors that You Can Hand Deliver
If your party guests live nearby, you can hand deliver your party favors to your guests. The good thing with hand delivering party favors is you will have more party favor options to choose from but it will be more work for you to deliver door to door. Kids of all ages will love Harry Potter glasses, wands and lightning tattoo. Treat your guests to Harry Potter themed candies like Bertie Botts beans, Chocolate frogs and Harry Potter PEZ. Love this adorable Owl as a party favor for your child’s Harry Potter birthday party. Funko Pop! Keychains are always a hit and great as a backpack accessory. Your guests will enjoy unboxing Harry Potter blind bags. I recommend these Harry Potter wand blind bags, they are collectible solid metal mini-wands with stand. For Lego fans, give them Harry Potter Minifigurine blind bags. Harry Potter Uno Game are also great party favors, the kids will love the special Sorting Hat card! Package your party favors in these Harry Potter party favor gift bags.
When delivering party favors to your guests, keep your child safe by wearing a Harry Potter mask. If you want to stay on theme, dress your child in a Harry Potter robe. If it’s cold out, keep your child warm with a Harry Potter beanie. It may be extra work for you to drop off party favors door to door, but I’m sure your child will enjoy delivering party favors to your guests!
Harry Potter Birthday Party Zoom Background
Your child’s Harry Potter birthday party may be a virtual party, but that doesn’t mean you skip the party decorations. The good thing is since it’s a virtual birthday party via Zoom, you don’t need to decorate the entire party room. You just need a Harry Potter Zoom background. Harry Potter balloons, Harry Potter birthday banners against a brick Hogwart’s Express platform 9¾ makes for a nice Harry Potter Zoom background for your child’s virtual birthday party. You can also dress your child on-theme with a Harry Potter shirt, Harry Potter sweatshirt or a Harry Potter robe. And of course, serve the birthday cake on Harry Potter plates with fun dynamite birthday candles. You can also surprise the birthday child with a big Harry Potter banner on your front lawn! Your son or daughter will get a kick out of cars honking to greet your child Happy Birthday!
Birthday Gifts for Harry Potter Fans
You will find that when you throw your child a virtual birthday party, not every guest will send a gift. Be prepared to supplement birthday presents by buying extra gifts for the birthday child. I know how hard it is to come up with birthday gifts that your child will love. I’m sharing some birthday gift ideas you can give to kids who are Harry Potter fans.
Harry Potter Lego Sets: Harry Potter Lego sets are perfect birthday gifts for Harry Potter fans! If your child loves Legos, then Harry Potter Lego sets will surely be a hit. My kids are big Harry Potter fans and they have set out a goal to collect Harry Potter sets, I’m sure that is not unique to my kids and many Harry Potter fans also have that as a goal! My kids are trying to recreate Harry Potter movie scenes with Lego sets because they plan to make Harry Potter stop motion animation videos. The 4 Privet Drive Lego set is a nice Lego set and you will win big because the Privet Drive Lego set comes with the much coveted Dobby! My kids loved their Hagrid’s House Lego set because it comes with Buckbeak the Hippogriff plus the fireplace actually lights up! The Hogwarts Express train Lego set is fun for all ages, it even comes with the secret door revealing platform 9¾! If you are looking for more substantial sets, then you can’t go wrong with one of the Hogwarts Lego sets- the Great Hall Lego set is a must and it comes with the sorting hat and 10 mini-figurines (Ron, Harry, Hermione, Draco, Dumbledore, Hagrid and more.) The Astronomy Tower and The Clock Tower Lego sets are also essential sets if your child is recreating Hogwarts. Your Harry Potter fan will appreciate that the Hogwarts Lego sets can be connected together to build Hogwarts School. For less expensive Harry Potter lego sets, I recommend the Harry Potter Knight Bus (triple decker bus!) and the Hungarian Horntail Lego set (to recreate a Triwizard Challenge.) If you want to wow the Lego and Harry Potter fan, you can gift the Harry Potter Diagon Alley lego set. The Harry Potter Diagon Alley is very expensive but definitely an epic and aspirational Lego set!
Fantastic Beasts: Fantastic Beasts gifts are perfect presents for the Harry Potter fans! If your child devoured all seven Harry Potter books and they are wishing for more Harry Potter books, you can introduce your Harry Potter fan to the Fantastic Beast series. Fantastic Beast is a spin-off and prequel to the Harry Potter series. Your Harry Potter fan will love reading about Albus Dumbledore as a young teacher at Hogwarts. There are two books in the Fantastic Beast series: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Book 1) and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Book 2). Just know that these books are written as screenplays to the text are not written like your typical novel. However, for the Harry Potter fan, they will still enjoy reading the Fantastic Beasts books. You should also get the Fantastic Beasts DVDs as a supplement to the Fantastic Beasts books, your Harry Potter fan will get a kick out of seeing Hogwarts and Young Dumbledore on screen! There are also Fantastic Beasts toys that are great gifts for the child who loves Harry Potter. The birthday child will love Fantastic Beasts plush like the adorable Niffler (my son loves that Niffler so much, he sleeps with it!) There are also Fantastic Beasts Lego sets that you may still be able to buy (although many are discontinued by Lego).
Harry Potter Books: Harry Potter books are perfect birthday gifts for Harry Potter fans. The birthday child who is obsessed with Harry Potter will devour any Harry Potter books you give them. My kids loved the Harry Potter Wand Book, it’s a beautiful hardcover book featuring different wizard’s wands. The Harry Potter Character Compendium is another beautiful hardcover book and is a nice resource as a who’s who in the wizarding world. It’s a useful book to have, my kids refer to the Harry Potter Character Compendium book often whenever they want to find out more information and facts about the various Harry Potter characters. For younger Harry Potter fans, the Harry Potter Marauder’s Map Book is a lot of fun. The Harry Potter Marauder’s Map comes with a wand that is also an invisible ink pen with UV light so your birthday child can pretend they are Harry using the Marauder’s Map! Another fun book for your Harry Potter fan is The Harry Potter: The Wand Chooses the Wizard book, it comes with a wand that makes spell sounds to help your little wizard cast spells! If your child likes to cook, then The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook is great fun. Your child will have fun pretending they are having a feast at Hogwart’s Great Hall eating Harry’s favorite dessert and dishes!
Harry Potter Board Games: Harry Potter board games are fun birthday gifts for Harry Potter fans! My kids love playing Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit. It’s perfect for family game night. It will challenge even the most obsessed Harry Potter fans testing their knowledge on 6 Harry Potter categories: The Dark Arts, Hogwarts, Magical Spells and Potions, Magical Objects, Magical People, Animals and Magical Creatures. Harry Potter Clue is also a lot of fun for your favorite Harry Potter fan. Your kids will love trying to piece together who vanished, what spell was used, and where the crime happened! If you are looking for a lively family game night board game that is ideal for kids young and old, the Harry Potter HedBanz is a great gift!
Harry Potter Jigsaw Puzzles: If you are looking for challenging gifts for the Harry Potter fan, then Harry Potter jigsaw puzzles are perfect birthday gifts. Harry Potter jigsaw puzzles are ideal for older kids (teens). This Harry Potter Crests jigsaw puzzle is a nice gift that can be framed and proudly displayed in the birthday teen’s room. If you want to challenge the birthday teen, this Harry Potter jigsaw puzzle of Harry Potter characters will make the perfect birthday gift. Another challenging puzzle for teens (and adults) are 3D Harry Potter puzzles. Your Harry Potter fan will enjoy putting together this Harry Potter Diagon Alley 3D puzzle.
Star Projector for the Harry Potter fan: The Star Project is a great gift for Harry Potter fans of all ages. My daughter saw the Star Projector on TikTok and wanted one. The star projector projects a night sky on the ceiling, you can control the colors and lights with a remote control. It’s very relaxing to just lie down and watch the light show while listening to music. My kids love lying down watching the light show with Harry Potter’s Hedwig theme song playing in the background. It will feel like you are in a magical world, as if you are in a Harry Potter movie!
Activity Tracker to Motivate the Harry Potter fan to Stay Active: Activity trackers are perfect birthday gifts for both Harry Potter fans and non-Harry Potter fans! If you are like me, I am constantly trying to balance screen time and making sure my child stays physically active. I got my son a Fitbit Ace 2 for his birthday. He loves it because it motivates him to get more steps in an easy and fun way. Your child can select an image on his Fitbit home screen and that image will grow bigger and bigger as your child gets more steps! The Fitbit Ace 2 also tracks your child’s sleep which will motivate your child to sleep earlier. Your child’s Fitbit is also effective in motivating your child to move. The Fitbit Ace 2 vibrates every hour reminding your child to get at least 250 steps per hour. The Garmin VivoFit Jr is also a great birthday gift if you are looking for an activity tracker for your Harry Potter fan. My son used to have the Garmin VivoFit Jr (I got him the Fitbit Ace 2 because I wanted his activity tracker to link to my Fitbit). The Garmin VivoFit Jr has a lot of fun features, aside from counting steps, it also motivated my son to do his chores because he earned coins on his VivoFit Jr whenever he completes his chores. The Garmin VivoFit Jr also has an app with lots of fun games, my son loved playing the games on that app. The VivoFit Jr is a great motivator because the more steps my son gets, the more games he unlocks.
Final Thoughts on Hosting a Virtual Harry Potter Birthday Party
Good luck hosting your child’s virtual Harry Potter birthday party! The key to a successful virtual Harry Potter Birthday party is to plan in advance, be mindful of attention spans and keep your birthday party activities age appropriate so kids can do it on their own without having to ask their parents for help. Don’t expect your virtual Harry Potter birthday party to be as long as your typical 2 hour in-person birthday party, your virtual birthday party will probably last 45 minutes to 1 hour long (of course, it will be longer if you show a Harry Potter movie). If you are hosting a virtual Harry Potter birthday party for older kids, I suggest doing two birthday party activities to keep the party moving and your party guests engaged. Older kids will enjoy playing Harry Potter Kahoot! and doing a Harry Potter Origami project. For younger kids, one birthday party activity is sufficient. They will enjoy the virtual Harry Potter magic show or the virtual Harry Potter Potions show. Remember to relax and have fun at your child’s virtual Harry Potter Birthday party! They will have a blast!
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