An Epic Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Movie Theme Night

This theme night seems to have been born out of necessity. My son loves to read but is really stuck on reading the same graphic novels over and over again. He needed to be convinced to try something more challenging and on his level. A lot of parents have admitted that the Harry Potter series could be credited with re-sparking their interest in reading as a child. But no matter what I said to him, I could not convince my son to pick up these books.

This movie theme night changed everything! We had the cousins over for a Harry Potter themed sleepover party. We watched the first movie with activities sprinkled throughout to ramp up the excitement. We had a ton of fun doing all of these and the best part is I told them they can’t watch any of the other movies until they read the books and it seems like all of the kids are really interested in completing this reading challenge!

Below is a complete guide to set up your own movie theme night. Hopefully it will inspire many kids to pick up the books and read. But at the very least, it will be a great night of family fun that they will never forget.

Hogwarts Acceptance Letters

First the kids will need their letters. Start watching the movie and when the letters start pouring into Harry’s house the letters should start pouring into your house. I had printed an owl, glued it to a heavy cardstock and taped paper clips to the top and bottom. Then I ran a small rope from one curtain rod to the other. It just happens that this allowed it to travel right in front of the T.V. I created letters for each kid personalized with their names, the second line said “The Couch in the Living Room” and the third was our address. When Harry gets the first letter the owl traveled across my zipline as I pulled on one end and I grabbed the letters from his feet, (attached by a binder clip hanging from the paper clip taped to his feet). I made sure the kids knew they were addressed to them but then, just like in the movie, I was the mean Aunt that wouldn’t let them have them. I pretended to throw them in the fireplace. The second time I ripped them up. I only had one set of fake letters so it required a little imagination or slight of hand. Or you could print multiple fakes.

Finally when Hagrid enters the scene I asked my husband to pretend to be Hagrid. After Hagrid tells Hary he might have sat on his cake, my husband said, oh I sat on some stuff too and pulled out their letters. They each received an acceptance letter and a supply list.

The Wand Chooses the Wizard, How to Make Your Own Wands

This will come along fairly quickly after Gringots bank when Harry is shopping for his school supplies. You can either buy wands on Amazon or make them out of whatever you have on hand. I used chopsticks, hot glue and spray paint. If using this method, remember to let gravity do some of the work for you. Hold the chopstick up at a 45-degree angle and start in the middle and work towards the thick end so that the extra glue will fall to the end and bubble up to make a nice handle. Keep it spinning in your hand until the glue is set up. Get creative and add squiggles, spots and rings. Then you can either spray paint or paint with craft glue or whatever you have on hand.

I love to get creative with what I have on hand instead of spending money so look around the house and see what you might be able to use as a wand such as pencils, wooden dowels or even gather some sticks from the backyard or the park.

You could just hand them out but this activity had us laughing so hard, this is the one I would highly recommend. You will need one wand for each kid plus 3 extras here’s why:

Pause the movie because there are some important plot points coming up.

Choose an order, we did youngest to oldest. Ask the first child to pick a wand and have another adult at the ready with a free online sound board like myinstants.com. When they pick up the first wand choose a negative sounding button like dun dun dunnnn or whomp whomp. My husband chose some farting buttons that had me and my sister in law shaking our heads and saying, “no, no, definitely not”. Then on the third play a positive sound like the ding or Mario jump or magic fairy. Find your site and play around before movie night if you have the time. The kids thought this was hilarious and then they were locked in. They could not wait to see what happened next!

Anything From the Trolly Dears? DIY Bertie Bots Every Flavour Beans

We had taken the play shopping cart and taped some Hogwarts Express signs to the sides. Then loaded it up with candy. The chocolate frogs and Bertie Bots every flavour beans can still be found at Five Below or on Amazon. But in my opinion they are still a little bit expensive for candy. I created an Every Flavour Beans label and added to a bag of the cheapest Jelly beans I could find. Add anything to the Trolly you like, keeping in mind we will be having cupcakes and chocolate later. So some healthier options, even if they are not authentic to the movie, would be fine to incorporate if you want.

Enter Hogwarts and Find Your House, Sorting Hat Cupcakes

While the kids were snacking, I hung up a curtain with brick print on it with the 9 3/4 sign. I had to cut a slit down the middle so they could actually pass through it. On the other side we had hung some candles from the ceiling that were purchased on Amazon. While I love to make whatever I can instead of buying things I don’t need, I do think these candles were well worth the investment. After all, these will work for all eight movies so we may end up using them every year. And they turn on with a wand! We all loved playing with these!

To sort the kids into their houses we had made sorting hat cupcakes the night before. Each one has a tiny scoop taken out of the middle with colored frosting added for each house color, Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. I had considered omitting the green because I didn’t want anyone to feel bad if they were sorted into Slytherin. However, one of the cousins actually wanted a green one, so I was glad that I had made them and just placed them towards the back. The hats were made from chocolate, coconut, caramel cookies but you can use any cookie that has a chocolate coating on the bottom. We used a little bit of frosting to glue a kiss to the bottom and placed the hats over the color. So, each kid only needed to lift the hat to see which house they were sorted into. If you don’t feel like baking, you can pick some up from the bakery and just scoop a hole in the middle to add your colored frosting to.

Remembrall Craft

This can either be done when Nevil receives his Remembrall in the mail or when they are all learning to fly.

Simply cut a small chunk of red tulle or a wide Christmas ribbon and stuff it into a clear plastic Ornament. You can use a wand to help if needed. Then, take some thin gold ribbon and adhere it around the ornament on the outside. We like to use glue dots for this because they have a strong hold and require zero drying time. You can either seal it up and call it good at this point or you could add a warm sentiment printed or written in gold. Something like, “never forget how much I love you”.

Flying Lessons

During flying lessons you can make a quick snack out of mini pretzel sticks and string cheese. Cut a piece of string cheese into thirds, stick it onto your pretzel stick and then fray the ends to make your broomstick snack.

Theres a Troll in the Dungeon

Troll Bogie popcorn is super easy to make! Ours was covered in bright green melting candy and my sister in law portioned it into snack bags for everyone. During the troll scene she pretended to sneeze and throw the bags at each of us. Again, the kids thought this was a riot. Really get into it and have fun with it and then the kids will too.

Make popcorn however you like, we prefer to make it on the stove with coconut oil but microwave is fine.

Follow the instructions on the bag of melt-ums. You might think it is not necessary to reduce the power to 50% but I promise you, it is. If you skip the power adjustment the candies are likely to seize and clump. Once melted mix in your popcorn. Spread the popcorn out on a baking sheet covered in wax paper to dry. You can use as much or as little as you like. I used one cup of pre melted melt-ums for about 8 cups of popcorn.

Pro Tip: use disposable bowls and utensils with melt-ums if you can. It just makes the clean up so much easier.

Quidditch Practice, DIY Chocolate Snitch

Prep your golden snitches beforehand by cutting out some clipart wings and placing them on a round golden candy such as a Lindor Truffle or Ferrer Rocher. While they are eating their popcorn try to hide the snitches around the house without anyone noticing. Tape a piece of fishing line to the chocolate and tape the other end of the fishing line to the ceiling, (painters' tape on the ceiling is best to protect the finish).

Tell them it’s time for quidditch practice. They are all trying out to be Seekers for their house. I had made sure to hide one for each child, but you can play however you like.

Dragon Eggs

You can purchase dig kits that allow you to dig a dragon out of an egg. This can be done while visiting Hagrid's house and learning that he has acquired a dragon egg. If you can't find the dig kits, try the unicorn blood below.

Unicorn Blood

Give each kid a portion of any kind of slime and tell them it’s unicorn blood. I had purchased a simple unicorn slime kit and split out each item evenly into little mini kits for everyone. My son pointed out after he saw the movie that it would have been more authentic to only give them silver glitter to mix in. However, if you are a slime free or glitter free house you may want to opt for the dragon eggs above instead.

Find the Key with the Broken Wing

Find some clipart of keys with wings, cut them out and hang them on the walls. Make sure to have one key with a broken wing. You can make your own broken wing by simply tearing one wing part way and letting it hang there. This is an activity you can have the kids set up for themselves. Just be sure to keep the key with the broken wing and hide it when they are not looking or tear one wing from the keys they have hidden themselves, they'll never see that coming. The kids can cut and tape all of the keys along the walls, hidden all over the house. They won’t know what the game is if they haven’t seen the movie or the broken key. Remember to use painters' tape to protect your walls.