Thread: Hogwarts Halloween - Help!

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I'm probably the most excited person in the world, even though it's only July - I'm planning A Hogwarts Halloween!

My only problem is, I'm planning on having games and activities around the house so people can earn house points (they all get sorted when they first come in, see blog in my sig) and so far I have two main ideas:

1. HP Trivia, each house gets a trivia scroll and every correct answer gets 5 points. This would preferably be the only activity where everyone at once is involved.

2. I found some tiny HP book replicas, doll house size on ebay, and I'm going to hide them around the house. There'll be a sign on the bookshelf by the real size books saying anyone who finds one and hands it back to me gets 20 points for their house.

The thing is, I'll have about 15-20 people and a small house, so I don't want to do lots of 'group up and sit down' games, I want things people can do independently or with their housemates but not neccesarily with my supervision (I'll be the only person not playing since I'd know all the answers!)

Does anyone have game ideas that can be played while people are mingling? I like the ideas of things like a drinking game where for every shot you take you get 10 points or something but again, I need things where there won't be much room for cheating. Don't worry about them being specifically HP - I can always take a game idea and theme it for HP instead

Do you have anyone else who can help you to "direct" things? If so you could offer Hogwarts classes and give people points for completing them. If you can get people to help you can have a few people be 'professors' and they can hold the 'classes' (in different areas and you could limit how many people can participate at a time) and then either have the professors ask questions about the class (such as questions about the instructions they gave to see if people were listening) or give out points for attendance. Or if you can get a few people to help you can have them walk around and give out house points for whatever activities people are doing, you could make something to give out that represents the points such as aquarium gem stones (like this) so people can't cheat.

I thought of a good game, you could play "Guess Who" where everyone who comes in gets a badge with a character's name on it put on their backs or foreheads and then they have to guess who they are based either on how the other guests interact with them, or by asking other guests questions. Then you could give out points to the people who get it right (or give points based on how quickly they figure it out.) You can put limits on it, like say people can only ask 20 questions or something. The only problem is people could cheat by asking their friends to tell them the name, or by sneaking a peek.
Here are a few variations on this:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2213210_play...head-game.html
http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cg...97401-5144.txt
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclop...ss-Who%27s-You

I threw a friend's daughter a Harry Potter party once and we did Potions class which was me teaching them how to make "magic slime" (cornstarch and water) and another 'class' I forget.
I also did Harry Potter theme for my birthday party once. We did wand-making, I bought a bunch of small wooden dowels and sanded down one end, and had a table with paints, metallic markers and glitter so people could decorate their own wand. We also did Harry Potter trivia but I used this board game for that:
http://www.harrypotterstore.mobi/har...fects-edition/

A table with mugs or glasses from a dollar store and some arts and crafts could be a design your own ButterBeer container.

Continuing with a food theme, you could have plain cupcakes and bowls of frosting and decorations like cookie crumbles, worms, candy corn pumpkins, etc. Guests could decorate their own cupcakes. Bonus points if your guests make their cupcake house colors or HP themes like a Mandrake cupcake or pumpkin pastie cupcake.

I'm a Harry Potter nut and I know a bunch of people on here are too. I'm sure if you do a search you'll find tons of inspiration on here!

How about awarding points to the person who comes up with the most original incantation, with perhaps bonus points for the most theatrical wand-flourishing ?

How exciting!! Another Harry Potter fan!! We had a Potter themed Halloween in 2007, and the hit of the evening (aside from Patron Tequila shots disguised as Veritaserum ) was Potter Pictionary. We had a dry erase board set up on an easel, and we had to draw a name or phrase from HP and have our team mates guess it. Alas, a group activity...I'll have to think about this some more. Hiding the tiny books sounds like a great idea.

I have lots of decor ideas/pictures I could share, but none on the forum, I'm afraid. PM me if you want to see them, I'll get some to you, or make up an album here.

Check out this site for decor/recipes/etc. This girl is fabulous and I have shamelessly stolen her ideas for years!! (Look for the Hogwarts crest)

http://www.britta.com/index2.html

I love Britta's site! I only stumbled across it a couple of days ago, it's amazing

Thanks for the ideas guys, I've been mulling them over and finally come up with my final three games!

1. Shrunken Hardback Hunt

Neville was practicing his charms in the library when he accidentally shrunk the full set of Harry Potter books! Now the books are loose within Hogwarts - if you find one, return it to Hermione to win house points.

2. Snape's Potion Challenge

Professor Snape is very angry! Some thieving first years have been in his potions cupboard and torn of all the labels off his vials. Each student must work with their housemates to guess what substance each vial holds, and there's only one way to find out - by drinking them!

3. Hermione's Tricky Trivia

Think you know Harry Potter? Find Hermione and challenge her to pose you a question from her Cauldron Of Questions - get it right and you could win points for your house.


Obviously I'm Hermione I thought instead of trying to get everyone sitting down all at once for trivia (difficult in a house with only two sofas and four chairs) then people can come to me and get points for correct answers!

I liked the idea of potions class as well but I eventually adapted it so I don't have to be around to watch people do it, they just have to bring me their completed house scroll

That sounds great!! Good way to handle the trivia, too. There are a gazillion Potter trivia questions here and there online, so you won't even have to make up your own if you don't want to take the time. Sounds like you are off to a great start!

It's all fun and games until you wind up with a Hermione clone who disagrees with your answers!

how about brewing some butterbeer and have a fastest chugging contest? i just wouldn't know where to find a butterbeer recipe though

One fun one I was recently introduced to:

1 part butterscotch schnapps

6 parts club soda (they insisted to use this instead of cream soda. I haven't had a chance to try it with that yet.)

Whipped cream

Butterscotch or caramel syrup.

Mix the club soda and schnapps. Test for flavor and add more if needed but you don't want it too strong yet

Put whipped cream in another cup and add a generous amount of caramel syrup to it. Whip it together. Then slowly stir some of it into the mixed drink while leaving a good "head" on top of it. Add more syrup on top if needed.

This goes down real smooth so you don't want to make it strong or it'll turn into Veritaserum! Thus I want to try it with cream soda so you can lower or even completely omit the schnapps if you need to.