As a middle-school-aged nerd, I know how hard it can be to plan a party for a nerdy kid. First of all, there’s a serious lack of decorations for many themes that catch your interest. Here’s a few birthday parties that
I’ve had that might inspire you. Today, we’ll cover my Harry Potter birthday.
Harry Potter Party
I was 7 years old, and not at all nerdy, when I discovered Harry Potter. It changed my life, and set me on a path of sci-fi/fantasy movies that still hasn’t ended to this day. Naturally, when I finished the book series when I was 8 and a half, I just had to have my birthday themed around it. Now, most of my friends at this point hadn’t even seen the first movie, let alone read the whole series like I had. So the challenge here was to make the theme appeal to all kids, not just potterheads.
We started off by having everyone board “platform 9 3/4” (our courtyard with a sign and a few chairs). Once everyone had walked “straight through the wall”, we had them find seats on lawn chairs as they rode to Hogwarts.
Next, the kids did some shopping at Diagon Alley (our living room), including getting robes from Madame Malkin’s and choosing wands from Ollivanders. The wands were relatively simple to make, and instructions on how to make them can be found here. The robes can be ordered online if you want the authentic HP style, but black robes from the nearest costume store should work fine.
The sorting ceremony came after. This can be a lot of fun, but you also have to be careful not to spoil the experience. For one thing, if you want to do it the way we did, just tape a walkie-talkie inside the hat and have somebody in another room announce houses. Unfortunately, a few curious kids quickly figured out was going on, so just make sure you don’t let them get too good of a look at the hat. Another factor to consider is which house you’re putting each kid in. Some people hate certain houses and love others, so it’s nice to have an idea of which house each kid prefers before sorting. If not, just base the houses on personality. Here’s a HP house guide that should apply to younger children.
For classes, we primarily focused on my two favorites (at the time): Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. These also happened to be the simplest classes to have at your own house. For potions, there are a lot of easy gimmicks that can usually be found in a kindergarten classroom (i.e. dry ice) that can function as mystical concoctions. Some are even edible (one we made was basically fruit punch). For DATDA, we just had everyone practice flicking their wands and saying “Expecto Patronum”. You know, basic stuff.
When it came time for cake, our dining room became the Great Hall complete with floating candles. Of course, the cake was HP themed, and we just picked it up at a local bakery. The wallpaper can be printed out from online.
Oh, and no Harry Potter party is complete without witty posters that only fans will get…
Thoughts of a Middle School Nerd 