Looking for a magical, non-traditional Harry Potter party idea for a large group? Try out our fun ideas for a Harry Potter farmer’s market!
This past year, I finished reading all seven Harry Potter books out loud to my young daughters (I sugar-coated some of the darker parts), and it was an incredible experience. To my delight, the girls became obsessed with all things Harry Potter, and my middle daughter wanted it to be her birthday theme. I thought it was extra-fitting that her birthday happens to fall on the week before Harry’s in July.
Because of its [very well-deserved] popularity, Harry Potter is a common party theme, and it can be hard to come up with original ideas. Two of my sisters have thrown some pretty incredible Harry Potter parties for their kids already, and while I wanted to steal every one of their ideas, I also wanted to try my own spin on things.
It just so happened that the majority of our family was able to get together around the time of my daughter’s birthday. So I took advantage of the large number of people and our entire family’s obsession with Harry Potter to create a fun, unique Harry Potter party experience: a Harry Potter themed “farmer’s market”. Imagine Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade meet a farmer’s market.
(Fun Fact: My family is so obsessed with Harry Potter that we once actually stayed in a Harry Potter-themed Airbnb! It was the coolest, and you can read about that here.)
**Disclaimer: We are associated with Amazon Affiliates and have links to the really awesome products we used for our party. We earn a small commission based on any purchases. Thank you so much for supporting us!
Our Harry Potter Farmer’s Market Overview
Before I get into the details of the Harry Potter farmer’s market booths, I’ll share the big picture of how we executed the party.
The party was originally going to be hosted outside on my parent’s lawn, but the 104 degree temperature persuaded us to absolutely not do that. We ended up reserving the gym in our local church building, which turned out to be a perfect venue, as we needed an indoor space large enough to fit over 20 people and several tables.
We like to have a story that kind of leads the party and presents a natural flow for the activities. So we decided to begin the story at “Hogwarts”, where the party guests were new first-year students.
The stage in the gym ended up being the perfect place for the “Great Hall”. We set up the House tables and decorated them with their Sorting Hat“>Sorting Hat. (Because the Sorting Hat takes the students’ choices into consideration, we had the kids whisper to the hat which House they wanted to be in.) Each child got a
