This Valentine’s Day, instead of doing something boring, why not throw a Harry Potter party for yourself, your friends, or your library patrons? As a librarian I’m used to throwing large Harry Potter parties on a tight budget. But if you’re throwing a smaller party and have more money to spend you can start with my advice and expand!
If you’re hosting a library party, make sure you heavily advertise your program. Create eye catching flyers in bright colors that are clearly Harry Potter themed and blow them up large, placing them as many places as you’re allowed. Place small flyers next to the posters so people can take one home to remind them of the event time and date. Advertise on social media. If you’re planning a personal party, skip this step and contact friends by normal means or make fun invitations. No matter what type of program you’re doing, encourage people to wear costumes!
Next, plan out what you’d like to do at your party. Think of your age group (are they adults? Maybe incorporate drinking games!) the rough numbers you expect, and the space you have to use. For me, I often had one meeting room at the library with tables and chairs and beanbags, teen volunteers to assist me, and an idea that I’d get around 100-200 people. (Except for The Time That Shall Not Be Named when I got 400+ people)
I didn’t usually have a large budget, particularly for food, but I did have a giant color printer, paper, cardstock, and craft supplies. If you’re throwing a personal party on your own dime, obviously plan for how much you’re willing and able to spend. For me, I had to get donated food due to legal wackiness of how we spent patron funds. I often wrote our local grocery chain (thanks Publix!) and they gave me a gift card every few months for food. I also would ask around local places for donated cakes, and I had a contact at a few pizza places that would give me donated pizza as long as I didn’t ask more then once or twice a year. I also had an in with my local Barnes and Noble manager and she’d often give me merch I’d use as prizes for various contests. If you are throwing a library party try asking around your local area and explain who you are and what you’d use the donated goods for. Let the place donating know that you will add their name to all promotional materials to thank them, as well as have signs at the event thanking them for their contribution.
For a Valentine’s Day Harry Potter party, candy is a must! There’s a great craft to make fun snitches I’ll link here
You can add chocolate bars with dementor labels
Make your own Chocolate frogs or Bertie Botts Beans
Add Honeydukes labels to other candy for “licorice wands” “droobles best blowing gum” “lemon drops” and other Harry Potter faves.
Either make your own butterbeer (be careful because some of these recipes are disgusting) or slap on a ‘butterbeer” label on a 2 liter of soda.
Now that you’ve got your space, your advertising/invitations and food sorted out, it’s time to move on to crafts/activities.
I usually like to have a movie playing in the background. For a Valentine’s Harry Potter event, I think Half-Blood Prince is most apt, since Chamber of Secrets sadly cut out all the hilarious Lockhart stuff. I like to show movies at my programs whenever possible because it adds nice background noise, and also there are always people at the library programs who are either bored, feel awkward/shy, or perhaps are tired and just want to sit down. I always get a solid 10 people (and often many more) watching the movie.
I find it necessary at all Harry Potter programs to sort your guests and have them make a wand. There are wonderful wand crafts that you can make from wooden dowels or even chopsticks! Just add hot glue, beads, and paint.
You can sort your guests by making them take the Wizarding World quiz (if you’re having a small get together at home) a random draw or wheel of some kind, or a quiz they can take to get a button or other ID card saying which house they’ve gotten into. I edited this Buzzfeed quiz for my last Harry Potter 
Holiday program.
I recommend a variety of themed activities or games. Maybe create your own Honeydukes jar. Try your hand at book page roses. Make them extra fun with watercolors!
If you’re feeling not very mushy, make a pinata out of a heart and whale on it like your name is Roonil Wazlib.
Another great passive idea is to have trivia, puzzles, or coloring sheets that can enable your guests to chill in silence if that’s their jam. You can do a more lively trivia contest with participants choosing their answers (or writing it down on whiteboards) and then the winner can get a prize.
Make cute candy grams to go with your candy snitches. Simply print out some fun candy gram images and add candy of your choice!
If you want a more difficult craft, try out an Amortentia DIY jar. You can make this in a variety of ways, whether it’s a tiny necklace charm, a bookmark, or a large potions jar.
Do you want more action? Create an obstacle course that Harry has to dodge full of singing cupids while Percy and Malfoy get in his way, Lockhart trying to pin pink flowers on him while making Harry reenact a werewolf capture, and cringe in awkward teenage boy during Cho Chang’s tears.
If you’re doing a large program through a library or school, recruit volunteers to man/woman every station. Teach them the craft or activity so they can assist patrons in making their wand or bottle of Amortentia. Have your assistants arrive an hour early (at least) to help set up your crafts and decor. For easy decorations, I recommend finding Harry Potter themed images, making them poster sized, and hanging them up. If you have more artistic talent then me, you can create an Ollivander’s shop for the wands, House banners for the sorting, Snape’s potion dungeon for the Amortentia, Madam Puddifoots for Cho’s tears, etc.
Be prepared to get more supplies throughout the event, and if you’re a library employee do the rounds constantly to see if you’re running out of supplies or if your volunteers/assistants need anything.
Revel in your event, it will be so fulfilling to see everyone having fun due to your planning magic!
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