Harry Potter Halloween Costumes & Decorations: 34 DIY Ideas

Aloha!

So it's the middle of September, and I've already lost my dining room. Not to the kids this time. To me. There's a black tablecloth from the dollar store on my table and a bag of cheesecloth from Walmart on my chairs. There's a pumpkin on my floor with a lightning bolt drawn on it in dry-erase marker, because I wanted to "see how it looks" before I committed to a knife. ((It looks like a pumpkin with marker on it. Shocking.)) The good doctor walked through and looked at the pile of wire hangers on his chair. He asked if we're doing "the wizard thing" again this year. Yep! We're doing the wizard thing. We've done the wizard thing since my girls were small enough to fit in a pillowcase. Now they're big enough to have OPINIONS about it, so it has only gotten worse. Better. I mean better!

Here's what I've figured out after a lot of Octobers: a Harry Potter Halloween doesn't need a costume shop. It doesn't need a second mortgage, either. It needs your closet, a craft store, a pumpkin patch and one free afternoon. That's it! Every costume on my list came out of our closet or a thrift store, plus one little detail that makes it the character. Every decoration is cardboard, cheesecloth, fishing line and a bag of battery tea lights. No sewing machine. No licensed anything. I do this with four kids and a husband who's home about an hour a day, so you can do it with whatever you've got. I promise!

So here's my plan. Fourteen Harry Potter Halloween costumes, with what you need and how I make each one. Hermione and Luna go first, because those are the two you're all searching for (I checked...you are!). Then twelve decorations for your porch and yard, the kind that turn a plain suburban house into the road to Hogsmeade. Then eight pumpkins, carved and painted. And then the party for the night itself: the Hallowe'en feast from the books, with a Deathday party on the side for those of us who've read them twice. Ready?

One thing first, because it's kind of the point. Halloween IS the wizarding holiday. Hogwarts throws a Hallowe'en feast every single year, with live bats swooping over the tables and Hagrid's carved pumpkins the size of garden sheds. A troll crashes the first one. Nearly Headless Nick throws himself a Deathday party in the second book. The Fat Lady's portrait gets slashed on Halloween in the third. It's also the night Harry's parents died. The books never forget that, and I'll mention it this once and then leave it alone. Everything below is the happy half. :)

Halloween at Hogwarts, in the books

If you want my template for the whole party, it's the Hallowe'en feast in Philosopher's Stone. A thousand live bats over the tables. Carved pumpkins from Hagrid's patch big enough to sit in. Food that just appears on golden plates (I've tried this method at my own table...it does not work). And then a troll in the dungeon, which my kids re-enact every year with a broom and a LOT of screaming. Chamber of Secrets has the Deathday party. That's Nearly Headless Nick's five-hundredth, in a dungeon lit by black candles, with a ghost orchestra playing musical saws and a whole table of food left to rot so the ghosts can smell it. Lovely! Prisoner of Azkaban has Halloween in Hogsmeade and the Fat Lady's slashed portrait. So which film do I put on for Halloween night? Those three, in that order. The feast is the first twenty minutes of the first one, which is about as far as my youngest ever makes it anyway.

Harry Potter Halloween costumes from the closet

Every costume I do is a uniform, a robe or a thrift-store find, plus ONE detail that makes it the character. Hermione's hair. Luna's glasses. Hagrid's umbrella. Dobby's sock. Get the detail right and nobody looks at the rest, I promise you. And here's my cheat: I make three things once, and half of this list is done.

About 20 minutes · a few dollars for all three ((per kid, which is the number that matters))

What you need

• A striped tie from the thrift store, or two ribbons stitched together, for the house
• A black graduation gown, a black sheet, or a black bathrobe with the belt pulled off, for the robe
• A chopstick, hot glue and brown paint, for the wand

How I make it

1. Cut a head hole in the sheet if that's your robe, and hem it with hot glue. Nobody is inspecting the hem.
2. Run a blob of hot glue around the chopstick a third of the way up for the grip. Let it set, then paint the whole thing brown.
3. Make four wands while the glue gun is hot. I keep a coffee can of chopstick wands in the hall closet year-round now. Don't judge me!

1. Hermione Granger

The school Hermione is the one everybody wants, and you probably own most of it already. The hair IS the costume, so that's the part to start the night before. ;)

10 minutes, plus the braids overnight · a few dollars

What you need

• A white shirt, a grey V-neck sweater or cardigan, a grey pleated skirt or grey pants
• Knee socks and black flat shoes
• The Gryffindor tie and the robe
• Three old library books, the thicker the better
• A keychain hourglass on a piece of gold cord, for the Time-Turner

How I make it

1. Braid damp hair into six or eight small braids the night before. She sleeps on them.
2. In the morning we undo them and DO NOT BRUSH. That's the first-film hair, and it will scare you in the mirror, which means it's right.
3. Tie the tie loose, robe over the top, books under one arm, wand in the other hand.
4. Hourglass on the gold cord, over the head. Two minutes, and it looks like I tried really hard!

Yule Ball Hermione instead? A periwinkle-blue dress from the thrift store with the hair pinned up in a low twist. She will not take it off for a week. Ask me how I know.

2. Luna Lovegood

Luna is my costume for the kid who does NOT want to look like a school uniform. Honestly, she's my favorite one to put together! The layers are whatever is in the closet. The three homemade things are what make her Luna and not just "colorful".

About 30 minutes · a few dollars

What you need

• Mismatched bright layers: a pink cardigan over a green dress over striped tights
• Cardboard, pink and blue cellophane, for the Spectrespecs
• Two small radishes on earring hooks, or polymer clay ones in pink and white
• Eight wine corks and a piece of twine
• A printed Quibbler cover and a folded newspaper

How I make it

1. Cut the Spectrespec frames from cardboard and glue pink cellophane in one lens, blue in the other. She wears them on top of her head as often as on her nose.
2. Push the radishes onto earring hooks. Yes, real ones...they last the night.
3. Thread the corks onto the twine for the butterbeer-cork necklace. ((Don't ask me where I got eight wine corks. A neighbor. A very generous neighbor.))
4. Tape the Quibbler cover over the folded newspaper. Bonus points if she reads it upside down!

3. Harry Potter

Ten minutes, which is exactly why every third kid on our street is Harry ((and why I keep a spare pair of lensless glasses in the junk drawer)). So here's what separates yours: the tape on the glasses, and the scar in the RIGHT place.

10 minutes · a couple of dollars

What you need

• The robe, the tie and a white shirt
• Round glasses with the lenses popped out, and a strip of white tape for the bridge
• A red-brown eyeliner pencil
• Hair gel, and the wand
• A white plush owl for Hedwig, if you're doing the first film

How I make it

1. Pop the lenses out of the glasses and wrap the tape around the bridge.
2. Draw the lightning scar with the eyeliner and smudge it with my finger. It goes on the forehead, off to one side. Not dead center! I have corrected strangers about this. My kids find it mortifying.
3. Push his hair in every direction with a little gel.
4. Safety-pin the owl to the shoulder of the robe.

4. Ron Weasley

The sweater does the work here, and I will say this every year until somebody listens: the broken wand gets more comments than the sweater.

15 minutes · the price of a party-aisle wig, if you need one

What you need

• A maroon sweater and a scrap of felt for the R
• A white shirt, the tie and the robe
• Temporary red color spray for light hair, or a cheap wig for dark, from the party aisle
• A toy rat, for Scabbers
• A chopstick and clear tape, for the broken wand

How I make it

1. Hot-glue the felt R to the chest of the sweater and leave the white collar showing.
2. Loosen the tie like he just got yelled at, and add the robe.
3. Do the red hair, then tuck Scabbers in the sweater pocket with the tail hanging out.
4. Wind clear tape around a chopstick and write "Spellotape" on it in Sharpie.

5. Hagrid

The umbrella is the detail. Without it, Hagrid is just a man in a coat. With it, everybody knows!

15 minutes · thrift-store coat

What you need

• The biggest coat in the thrift store, brown or moleskin-looking, over a shirt and pants
• Crepe hair and spirit gum, or a brown scarf for a kid
• A pink umbrella, which is the wand
• A lantern, boots, and a foam egg painted grey-green in a bucket, for Norbert

How I make it

1. Coat over everything, the bigger the better.
2. Crepe hair on spirit gum if I'm feeling brave. If it's for a kid, or a grown-up who plans to eat, I pin the brown scarf over the chin instead.
3. Umbrella in one hand, lantern in the other, Norbert in the bucket.

6. Albus Dumbledore

My husband did this one two years ago and never quite came back. I now get answered in questions at breakfast.

20 minutes · one episode of something on the couch for the stars

What you need

• The longest white beard the party aisle sells
• Half-moon glasses from the craft store, or a bent wire hanger if you're cheap like me
• A thrift-store dressing gown in purple or midnight blue, and gold fabric paint
• A pointed hat if you've got one, and a paper bag of sherbet lemons

How I make it

1. Paint stars on the dressing gown in gold fabric paint. Ours took me one episode of something on the couch.
2. Beard on, glasses down the nose, hat if you have it.
3. Fill the paper bag with sherbet lemons and offer them to people all night.
4. Tell your Dumbledore to speak slowly and answer every question with a question.

7. Minerva McGonagall

The expression does the rest, and if you've ever stood in a school pickup line, you already have it!

10 minutes · a thrift-store dress and a party-aisle hat

What you need

• A green thrift dress with a green sheet as the cloak, or just a green bathrobe
• A black witch's hat from the party aisle
• A tartan scarf and a rolled-up scroll of parchment
• Reading glasses on a chain, and bobby pins for the bun

How I make it

1. Bend the point over on the witch's hat. A straight point reads as a generic witch.
2. Pin the bun tight. The tighter the bun, the more McGonagall.
3. Cloak on, scarf, glasses on the chain, scroll in hand.

8. Severus Snape

This is the cheapest grown-up costume on my whole list, and the most recognizable across a dark room. Not bad for a thrift-store shirt!

5 minutes · a thrift-store shirt

What you need

• A black shirt that buttons to the throat, black pants
• A long black cardigan or coat as the robe, and a black cape if you happen to have one ((who doesn't?))
• Hair gel, and a little potion bottle on a cord

How I make it

1. Button the shirt all the way up. All the way.
2. Gel the hair flat and part it dead down the middle.
3. Bottle on the cord, cardigan over the top, and then the scowl.

9. Bellatrix Lestrange

Practice the laugh in the car. Practice it a lot in the car, because my first three tries just sounded like a cough.

20 minutes · thrift dress and eyeliner

What you need

• A black lace dress, or a black thrift dress with a lace layer over it
• A corset-style belt and black boots
• Black eyeliner, or a printed temporary tattoo for the Dark Mark
• A teasing comb, and the wand

How I make it

1. Tease the hair into wild dark curls and go heavy on the eye makeup.
2. Draw the Dark Mark on the inside of the forearm in eyeliner: a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. The temporary tattoo is WAY easier and won't smear on your sleeve.
3. Hold the wand like a knife, not like a pen.

10. Sybill Trelawney

It's the cheapest costume I own, and the one that gets the most photos. Every. Single. Year. ((I have been asked for my predictions at the mailbox.))

10 minutes · an armful of thrift-store shawls

What you need

• Three shawls, six bangles, four bead necklaces
• A long patterned skirt and a gauzy blouse
• Enormous glasses from the party aisle, lenses in
• A teacup and saucer

How I make it

1. Put on the entire accessories rail at once. Layer the shawls, then the beads over the shawls.
2. Frizz the hair out.
3. Carry the teacup at ALL times, and predict doom for everybody who says hello.

11. Dolores Umbridge

This one works because everybody hates her on sight. The sweeter your smile, the better it lands. My sister-in-law did it one year and nobody would sit next to her at dinner. Success!

15 minutes · thrift-store pink

What you need

• A pink tweed suit from the thrift store, or a pink cardigan over a pink skirt
• A pink bow and a curling iron for the short curled hair
• A cameo brooch
• A clipboard with Educational Decrees printed on it
• A plate with a kitten printed on it

How I make it

1. Pink on pink on pink. There is no such thing as too much.
2. Curl the hair short and pin the bow in it. Brooch at the collar.
3. Carry the clipboard in one hand and the kitten plate in the other, like a purse.

12. Dobby, for a child

Here's the part that gets me every time, and I do mean every time, because I have watched a seven-year-old do this in a doorway and had to go stand in the kitchen for a minute: Dobby carries the second sock all night and gives it to somebody at the end. Somebody's grandma is going to cry. Fair warning!

1 hour, mostly waiting on the tea · a pillowcase and two tea bags

What you need

• A pillowcase and two tea bags
• A piece of rope for the belt, and leggings for underneath
• Two bright mismatched socks
• Tan felt, a headband and a pipe cleaner, for the ears

How I make it

1. Tea-stain the pillowcase in the bathtub with two tea bags for an hour, then dry it outside.
2. Cut holes for the head and arms, and tie the rope round the middle.
3. Cut the ears from tan felt and glue them over the headband, with a pipe cleaner inside each one so they stick out sideways instead of flopping.
4. One sock on one foot. The other sock stays in his hand.

13. Hedwig, for a toddler

And if your toddler refuses the hood, and they will, the wings alone still read as Hedwig from the sidewalk. I've been there. More than once!

45 minutes · a cardboard box and a ream of paper

What you need

• A white hooded onesie or a white sweatsuit
• A cardboard box and a stack of white printer paper
• Elastic, felt in amber and orange, and glue
• A letter addressed to "Mr H. Potter, The Cupboard under the Stairs"

How I make it

1. Cut the wings from the box in a curve.
2. Cut the paper into feather shapes and glue them on overlapping from the bottom up. This is a great job for whoever is bored.
3. Tie the wings to the wrists and the back with elastic.
4. Glue two big amber eyes and an orange beak to the hood, and put the letter in her hand.

14. A Dementor, for the yard or the door

Stand at the end of the driveway, hold the "kiss" pose, and move slowly. VERY slowly. Then hand a bar of chocolate to whoever survives it, because that's the cure. Also because it's Halloween and you have chocolate anyway. ;)

30 minutes · two sheets and a bag of cheesecloth

What you need

• Two black sheets, one for the cloak and one for the hood
• Two yards of black cheesecloth
• Grey knit gloves and some cardboard
• A piece of black mesh for the face

How I make it

1. Sew (or staple...no judgment here) a hood from the second sheet onto the cloak.
2. Tear the cheesecloth into strips and drape them over the whole thing.
3. Extend the fingers of the gloves with cardboard, so the hands are too long.
4. Staple the black mesh across the hood opening. You can see out. Nobody sees in.

Family and group costumes

• The Weasleys: everybody in red hair spray and hand-knit-looking sweaters with a felt initial. The baby is Ginny in a stroller, and the dog is Fang. Your dog will not cooperate. Ours never has. It's fine.
• The four houses: four robes, four ties, four scarves in the house colors. Then a fifth person as the Sorting Hat, in a brown felt hat with a stitched face and the whole body in brown. Dad gets this one at our house.
• A Dementor and a Patronus: one in the black cloak above, one in silver-grey with a string of white fairy lights tucked under a grey tulle skirt. The Patronus wins every photo we've ever taken!
• Hagrid, Norbert and Fang: the big coat, a toddler in a green dragon onesie, the family dog, a lantern. Done in the time it takes you to find the lantern.

Harry Potter Halloween decorations for the porch and the yard

Twelve decorations, and every one of them is for the OUTSIDE of a regular house. Halloween happens on the doorstep, and that's where your neighbors see it. They're cardboard, cheesecloth, fishing line, one can of spray paint and a bag of battery tea lights. Our whole porch runs on one trip to the dollar store and whatever is already in the garage, and the tea lights are the only thing I buy new! If you want the inside too, a Great Hall dining room and a potions bar for the party, that's on our sister site in Harry Potter party decorations for a normal house.

1. The Platform 9¾ front door

Trick-or-treaters walk straight through the wall, and about half of them stop and do it twice. Worth every cent of the cheapest thing on this list!

15 minutes · a dollar-store tablecloth

What you need

• A brick-print plastic tablecloth from the dollar store
• Command hooks and a craft knife
• A round "Platform 9¾" sign printed on cardstock
• A suitcase and a birdcage for the step

How I make it

1. Hang the tablecloth over the door on Command hooks.
2. Cut a slit up the middle for the handle and the mail slot.
3. Tape the round sign above the door, then set the suitcase and the birdcage on the step.

2. Dementors in the trees

THIS is the one the street talks about. Ours has come up in the school pickup line twice, and I am not too proud to say I brought it up the second time.

20 minutes for three · a bag of cheesecloth

What you need

• Three wire coat hangers
• Black cheesecloth
• Three battery tea lights
• Fishing line

How I make it

1. Bend each hanger into a hood shape.
2. Drape the cheesecloth over it and tear it ragged at the hem.
3. Drop a battery tea light inside the hood.
4. Hang them from branches on fishing line at different heights, so they turn in the wind.

3. Floating candles on the porch ceiling

The tea lights last the whole night...which is more than I can say for my kids.

30 minutes · a month of saved tubes

What you need

• A dozen paper towel tubes (I keep a bag in the pantry, which the good doctor finds deeply weird)
• White paint and a hot glue gun
• A dozen battery tea lights
• Fishing line

How I make it

1. Paint the tubes white.
2. Let hot glue drip down the sides so they look melted.
3. Push a battery tea light into the top of each one.
4. Hang them from the porch ceiling on fishing line at different heights.

4. Flying keys

Twenty keys, ten minutes...easy peasy!

10 minutes · a dollar

What you need

• Twenty old keys from the thrift store's junk drawer, usually a handful for a dollar
• White cardstock or tracing paper
• Glue and fishing line

How I make it

1. Cut little wings from the cardstock or tracing paper.
2. Glue a pair to the round end of each key.
3. Hang them on fishing line under the porch light, where they throw shadows all over the door.

5. "Have you seen this wizard?" on the door

My kids said it was the best thing I've ever made. Not the birthday cakes. The poster. Okay then!

30 minutes · printer ink

What you need

• A robe and a brick wall (the side of our garage works)
• A camera and a printer
• An Azkaban wanted poster template with a prisoner number
• Tape

How I make it

1. Photograph everybody in your house in the robe against the brick wall.
2. Print them in black and white on the poster, each with a number, and tape them to the door and the windows.
3. Here's my trick: print the Sirius Black one twice and tape the two frames on top of each other loosely. The wind flips it, so he "moves".

6. Hagrid's pumpkin patch

Scale is the joke...everybody gets it!

20 minutes · a bale of straw

What you need

• The biggest pumpkins you can carry to the car, and a few small ones
• A bale of straw
• A lantern on a post
• A board and paint for the sign

How I make it

1. Spread the straw in the front flower bed and set the big pumpkins on it.
2. Paint the sign: "Hagrid's – do not touch the pumpkins".
3. Light one carved pumpkin from inside, and make sure it is clearly, obviously the size of a garden shed next to the rest.

7. The Owl Post mailbox

They will check that mailbox every day until Halloween, so plan accordingly. :)

20 minutes · a pack of envelopes

What you need

• A paper owl for the mailbox
• A stack of envelopes and a green pen
• The neighbor kids' names

How I make it

1. Perch the paper owl on the mailbox.
2. Address the envelopes in green ink to "The Cupboard under the Stairs" and "The Girls' Dormitory, Gryffindor Tower", and stuff them in so they spill out.
3. Add a few with the neighbor kids' real names on them.

8. The Monster Book of Monsters on the step

Small children will refuse to walk past it ((mine included, for about a week)). That's the point!

20 minutes · a remnant of fur fabric

What you need

• An old hardback book
• Brown fur fabric from the remnant bin at the fabric store
• Four googly eyes and a scrap of felt for the teeth
• A belt, and a motion-sensor Halloween growl box

How I make it

1. Wrap the book in the fur fabric like a dust jacket.
2. Glue on the googly eyes and a row of felt teeth along the page edge.
3. Buckle the belt around it to keep it "shut", and hide the growl box underneath.

9. Aragog in the hedge

I made ours in one Saturday afternoon, and he has survived three Halloweens in our garage rafters. Barely.

An afternoon · eight pool noodles

What you need

• A black trash bag and a stack of newspaper
• Eight pool noodles and a roll of black tape
• Wire, and two ping-pong balls for the eyes
• White yarn for the web

How I make it

1. Stuff the trash bag with newspaper for the body.
2. Wrap the pool noodles in black tape and run a piece of wire through each one, so you can bend them at the "joints".
3. Tape the legs on, add the ping-pong eyes, and set him half in, half out of the hedge.
4. String a web of white yarn behind him.

10. Potion bottles in the window

This is my favorite one! It's also the one I'm still doing at 5 pm on the 31st, with my coat half on and a trick-or-treater already at the end of the driveway. So maybe you do it first.

30 minutes · thrift-store bottles

What you need

• Thrift-store bottles, the odder the better
• Food coloring
• Paper and a tea bag for the labels
• A string of warm fairy lights

How I make it

1. Fill the bottles with water and a drop of food coloring each.
2. Tea-stain the labels, write the potion names on them, and glue them on.
3. Line the bottles up on the windowsill with the fairy lights behind them, so they glow from the street after dark.

11. The Whomping Willow

No tree? A bush with a Hot Wheels in it gets the joke too. Kind of. ((We did that our first year here.))

15 minutes · a kid's toy car

What you need

• The biggest tree in your yard
• Strips of grey cloth
• A kid's toy car and a battery bike light
• A board for the sign

How I make it

1. Hang the grey strips from the branches so they move in the wind.
2. Wedge the toy car in the fork of the tree and tape the bike light in, headlights out.
3. Put a sign at the base: "Keep back".

12. The Fat Lady at the doorbell

The kids who say it get the extra candy. The kids who don't say it get candy too, obviously, because I'm not a monster. They just get less. ;)

20 minutes · a thrift frame and gold spray

What you need

• A thrift-store frame and a can of gold spray paint
• A printed portrait of a lady in pink silk
• A card that says "Password?"

How I make it

1. Spray the frame gold and let it dry outside.
2. Put the portrait in it and hang it next to the doorbell.
3. Tape the "Password?" card underneath. The password is on the Owl Post letters.

Harry Potter pumpkins: carving and no-carve

We do eight pumpkins. Four carved, four painted, because a carved one lasts us about a week and a painted one lasts the whole month. Draw everything with a dry-erase marker first. I learned that one the hard way, and the hard way had a hole in it.

1. The lightning bolt. One clean carve, and I put the bolt off-center like the scar. Lit from inside, it's the whole theme in one pumpkin. If you only do one, do this one!

2. The Deathly Hallows. A triangle, a circle inside it, a line down the middle. I make three straight cuts and one curve, and it's the most recognizable symbol on the street. This is the one your grown-up neighbors stop for.

3. Hedwig. An owl silhouette, but I don't cut all the way through. I scrape the skin away, so the shape glows softly through the flesh. Print a silhouette, tape it on, prick the outline with a pin, then scrape. Takes longer...worth it!

4. The Sorting Hat. I paint a tall pumpkin brown and draw a stitched face on it in black Sharpie: two creases for eyes, one long fold for the mouth. Then a brim of brown felt hot-glued around the base and a green sticker on the stem. No carving, and it sits on my step until Thanksgiving.

5. The four houses. I paint four small pumpkins red, green, blue and yellow and draw the house animal on each in gold marker. Then we line them up on the step in the order the Hat calls them. My kids will tell you if you get the order wrong. Loudly!

6. The Golden Snitch. I spray a small round pumpkin gold and cut wings from white cardstock. The wings get the leftover paper feathers from the Hedwig costume, and I pin them into the sides. Then I hang it from the porch on fishing line so it "flies". One can of gold spray paint does this AND the Fat Lady's frame, so buy the can.

7. The Monster Book of Monsters. I wrap a squat pumpkin in the same fur fabric, with googly eyes and felt teeth around a mouth carved as a wide grin. I put it right next to the book version on the step and let people figure out which one growls. Hee hee.

8. Platform 9¾. I paint a pumpkin brick-red with grey mortar lines and the round sign on the front. Then a toy trolley goes half sunk into a hole cut in the side. This one took me two tries, because my first trolley went ALL the way in. Oops!

The party: a Hallowe'en feast and a Deathday party

Here's how the night works at our house. The Halloween party is the Hogwarts feast for the family and the Deathday party for those of us who've read the books twice. It's the SAME table with two sets of labels! The feast part: paper bats on black thread from the ceiling, and the carved pumpkins lit down the middle of the table. Everything from my Harry Potter party food ideas goes on gold plates from the party aisle. A jug of pumpkin juice from the non-alcoholic drinks. Hot butterbeer at the end of the night, for the ones who come in frozen from the doorstep. For the grown-ups, the cocktails. The Dementor's Kiss first. Trust me!

Then the Deathday touches, which are my favorite part and which my kids call "the creepy stuff Mom likes". Black candles (battery ones, please). A tombstone cake iced in grey with "Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, died 31st October, 1492" piped on it. A playlist of musical saws (yes, that exists, and yes, it's awful). A plate of "rotten" food that's really green-sugared peanut brittle, and a grey-frosted cake nobody has to eat. And a Headless Hunt: paper heads I hide all over the house for the kids to find. The Sorting Hat quiz at the door sorts everybody into houses as they arrive. At the end of the night we dump the trick-or-treat candy into four cauldrons, one per house, and count it. Loudly! My printable food labels name everything on the table. My Halloween bingo printable is the game for the wait between the feast and the film. And the rest of my Harry Potter party posts are all in one place, if you want the whole plan.

Questions people ask

Which Harry Potter movie is Halloween themed? None of them, entirely. But three have Halloween in them. Philosopher's Stone has the feast and the troll. Chamber of Secrets has the Deathday party. Prisoner of Azkaban has the Fat Lady's portrait and the Dementors. For Halloween night, the first one is the feast and the third one is the scary one. We do the first with the little cousins and the third after they've gone to bed.

Is there Halloween in Harry Potter? Oh, every year! The Hallowe'en feast at Hogwarts, with the bats and the carved pumpkins and the troll, is in the first book. The Deathday party is in the second. And Halloween 1981, the night Harry's parents died, is the reason the holiday matters so much in the story. So yes. It's kind of THE holiday.

What is the easiest Harry Potter costume? Snape for a grown-up: everything black, hair flat, a scowl. Harry for a kid: glasses with tape, a drawn scar, a robe and a tie. Both are ten minutes, honestly. Hermione is the one you actually mean when you ask, and the hair is the only real work. Braids the night before. That's it!

How do you do a Harry Potter Halloween on a budget? A black sheet is your robe. A chopstick is your wand. A thrift-store striped tie is your house. And every decoration on this page is cheesecloth, cardboard, fishing line and tea lights. The most expensive thing here is the pumpkins, and I'm not kidding! I buy ours at the patch on the last weekend, when they're marked down, if I can stand to wait. I usually can't.

What is a Deathday party? Nearly Headless Nick's five-hundredth anniversary of his death, in Chamber of Secrets. A dungeon full of black candles, a ghost orchestra, rotting food for the ghosts, and the Headless Hunt crashing it at the end. At home it's our grown-up version of the feast, with the grey tombstone cake and the musical saws. If your guests have read the books twice, they'll lose their minds over that cake. If they haven't, they'll just think you're a little strange. Both fine by me!

So that's our Harry Potter Halloween, closet to doorstep. Which one are you making first? And if you've got a costume trick I haven't thought of, I want to hear it...because I have four kids, and I will absolutely be doing this again next year!

Aloha,
Charlee

More for the party

• Harry Potter party food ideas for the feast.
• Harry Potter cocktails and the non-alcoholic drinks.
• The Sorting Hat quiz for the door, the food labels and the invitations.
• Halloween bingo, the free printable.
• Every Harry Potter post on this blog, in one place.