Chica and Jo Chica and Jo

DIY tutorials, party ideas, recipes, crafts, and tips for everyday life

Chica and Jo Chica and Jo

DIY tutorials, party ideas, recipes, crafts, and tips for everyday life

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Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party Ideas

by: Jo
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Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party Ideas
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It's no secret that our house is filled with Harry Potter fans. When Little Jo turned eight, we threw her the ultimate Harry Potter party that made her feel like a witch attending Hogwarts. For MiniMe's eighth birthday, she also wanted a Harry Potter party, but of course she wanted it to be different. This time, we focused on a Tri-Wizard Tournament and Yule Ball theme. I have so many Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament party ideas to share with you.

Harry Potter costume ideas

I asked willing guests to come as certain characters from the book. I was blown away by how the costumes turned out and everyone had a blast getting dressed up. Of course, what Harry Potter themed party would be complete without "The Boy Who Lived" himself?

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Harry won't travel far without his trusted snowy owl, Hedwig, and our friend DIYed an amazing Hedwig costume to wear.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Ollivander also made an appearance. He enjoyed the party until he realized I would be putting him to work later, handing out wands.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Harry Potter themed party favors

The party favors were so fun for this Harry Potter party, and it was easy to find things in the book that inspired the party favors.

Wizard robes for the kids to wear

I started by getting the kids in full character by providing each of them with a wizarding robe to wear. There were some from each of the Tri-Wizard schools: Hogwarts, Beauxbaton, and Durmstrang.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

DIY wizard wands

Witches and wizards can't compete without a wand, so I made each kid a special wand using our DIY wand tutorial. I used different colors and designs to make them all unique so each child could have a personal connection to their wand.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Then I got Ollivander to hand the wands out to each wizard-in-training. They all felt so special when receiving their hand-selected wands.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

I even used some of our printable Harry Potter shop receipts to make an Ollivanders receipt to go with each wand.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Dragon topped candy box favors

As a final Thank You favor, each kid also got to take home a fun candy-filled dragon party favor that I made with Fireball candies and toy dragons.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

The Goblet of Fire party activity

As a fun party activity, we let the students enter their names into the Goblet of Fire. I made the goblet by gluing a small concrete planter to a wooden candle base with some E-6000. I then base coated it black and spray-painted it with a natural stone finish. McGeeky had the idea of filling it with rubbing alcohol and lighting it. Needless to say, if you use real flames, make sure you practice proper fire safety!

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Dumbledore supervised the kids putting their names into the goblet.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Harry Potter party games

The Tri-Wizard tournament was full of challenges, too. Here are our at-home versions of the tournament challenges found in the "Goblet of Fire". These would work well for any Harry-Potter themed party.

Tournament challenge #1: Get an dragon's egg

The first challenge in our tournament was a battle against a dragon to get an egg without getting scorched by her flames. I set up a giant inflatable dragon and enlisted a couple of the older kids to help guard her. I equipped them with Silly String to spray at the contestants as they approached the dragon, to try to scare them off.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

A fog machine provided the perfect smoke effect for the dragon. The kids got so excited when they managed to capture an egg! I made these by painting giant plastic Easter eggs with purple glittery paint.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Tournament challenge #2: Ingredient hunt and potion making

For the next tournament challenge, the kids had to search for magical ingredients and use them to create a potion. I gave each witch or wizard a cauldron for mixing the ingredients and some plastic test tubes for collecting them.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Inside the cauldron was a parchment with a potion recipe and list of ingredients on it. They had to search the Forbidden Forest (our back yard) for everything they needed.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Hagrid and Aragog were, of course, in the forest to help.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

The giant spider had the venom the kids needed for their recipe. With Hagrid's help, they were able to extract the venom (vinegar) into a test tube.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Professor Sprout was on hand to help the kids harvest the Dragon's Breath plant.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

A strand of hair from a cardboard Unicorn stand-up was crucial to the final potion.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Harry assisted with keeping the dragon baby calm while the kids got vials of blood (food coloring).

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

The kids found plenty of Bone Dust (baking soda) among a pile of bones.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Once they had everything on their list, it was time to mix up the potion. I had them gather lots of various ingredients to add to the fun, but really, the only crucial ones were the spider's venom (vinegar), bone dust (baking soda), and dragon's blood (food coloring). They loved that it bubbled up in different colors!

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Tournament challenge #3: Tri-Wizard maze

The final task in our tournament was the Tri-Wizard maze. I created a large maze in my barn, and made the walls with tobacco sheeting that I stapled to the rafters and secured to the floors with bricks. You can find this sheeting in giant rolls at your local farm supply store.

The maze had several obstacles, the first of which was the Sphinx, who had a riddle they had to solve. I simply drew a Sphinx onto some foam core, and wrote the question and answer on the back to make it easy for my helper to read aloud. Once the correct answer was given, the kids could continue further into the maze.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

The next obstacle was to get across a series of stepping stones. They were asked a question (What is the birthday girl's name?) and they had to find the letters to spell the answer, and only step on those to get across.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

In part of the maze, a giant rope spider web blocked the correct pathway, and kids had to crawl through it to get by.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Before entering the maze, each kid learned a few spells. One was "Expecto Patronum", which would get rid of the Dementor if they ever saw it. This spell came in handy when he showed up in the maze and tried to stop them! Once they got past this point, they exited the maze and their times were recorded. Fastest time wins!

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Harry Potter party cake table ideas

After the tournament was over, everyone celebrated at the Yule Ball. The witches and wizards definitely earned their desserts! The kids brought dress-up clothes with them to change into for the ball, and enjoyed the fancy feast.

We set up the ball in a white tent in the yard and decorated everything with snowflakes, icicles, and white lights. The cake was winter themed as well, with an ice dragon perched atop and hard candy icicles around the edges.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Nostalgia Electrics provided a chocolate fountain that anchored one end of the dessert table. The kids loved dipping everything into the white chocolate, and I think the Dumbledore cardboard stand-up wished he could partake as well.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Even Dobby took time out from his work in the kitchen to celebrate!

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

There were plenty of birthday cupcakes, too, which I decorated with picks featuring logos from the three wizarding schools.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

The kids looked lovely in their finest, and really enjoyed this fun excuse to dress up.

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party

Harry Potter Yule Ball and Tri-Wizard Tournament Party Ideas
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14 comments so far:

  • 1
    Sherrill 10/31/2017 at 5:54 pm

    Absolutely love the cake with dragon and ice

  • 2
    Jo 11/01/2017 at 9:39 am

    Sherrill, thank you!

  • 3
    Michelle Ballard 09/12/2018 at 11:21 am

    Where did you get your backdrop behind your dessert table?

  • 4
    Jo 09/12/2018 at 2:29 pm

    We actually "made" it. It is the side of the white tent with twinkle lights draped on the outside of the tent and then a layer of sheer, white fabric and then some large-scale snowflakes purchased at the dollar store. You could easily recreate it with some white sheeting, lights, thin white material, and some oversize snowflakes you either purchase of cut out from poster board.

  • 5
    Melody Scanlon 03/23/2019 at 6:56 pm

    Where did you get the Hermione dress?

  • 6
    Jo 07/07/2019 at 11:38 am

    We got it at Universal Studios. I think you can order from them online.

  • 7
    Amanda 01/04/2020 at 1:01 pm

    hi there! Proud hufflepuff and grown adult here to express how EPIC THIS IS. I’m planning my annual HP party and you’ve inspired me so much. Craftiness unparalleled!!! You, kind lady, are ridiculously creative and I just had to tell you that. =) ??

  • 8
    Chica 01/04/2020 at 1:06 pm

    Amanda, we're thrilled to hear we've inspired you! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great party. :)

  • 9
    Amanda 10/18/2022 at 3:41 pm

    I would love to pick your brain on where you got your props!! I plan a huge Harriette Potter camp every summer for 100 girl scouts and this year's theme is the triwizard tournament!!

  • 10
    Chica 10/18/2022 at 3:54 pm

    Amanda, we've tried to link everything we can within the post, so that should help you. If you get stuck finding specific items, let us know and we'll try to help.

  • 11
    G 12/16/2022 at 11:28 pm

    Where did you get the robes from?

  • 12
    Chica 12/17/2022 at 8:58 am

    G, I don't remember where I got these robes, but there are lots of good options here on Amazon.

  • 13
    Valerie 02/26/2023 at 11:23 am

    Where did you get the cauldrons?? This post is helping me so much with ideas for my son’s birthday planning!

  • 14
    Jo 02/26/2023 at 12:19 pm

    Valerie, we're so glad to hear this is helping you plan your party. You can find cauldrons in many sizes here on Amazon.

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Chica and Jo

Hi there! We are Chica and Jo, best friends who love to create whenever we can. From fun DIY projects to elaborate parties to delicious recipes, you're sure to find ideas that will inspire you. Take a look around and follow us @chicaandjo to see what we're up to today.

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