Birthday party for 11yo DD on minimal budget

[desperate4spring]

How do I pull this off? We blew most of the birthday budget on theatre tickets, forgetting that birthday parties were possibly going to be a thing ever again. And now of course she is asking for a party, which we would really like to be able to do for her as she moved schools during the pandemic and has a great little gang of new buddies!

She says she would like a Harry Potter themed party at home. Any ideas how to keep 8ish 11year-olds entertained for a couple of hours without spending a fortune?

I'm planning a movie party for my 11 year old. Lots of popcorn, crisps etc whilst watching film. Cake. Wave goodbye.

Movie night? Provide snacks and some more pamper goodies they could paint their nails and do face masks if they are into that kind of thing? 11 is an awkward age for parties I found.

A Harry Potter movie night. With some Harry Potter themed snacks look on Pinterest
A few Harry Potter type party games or similar such a spin the tail on hedwig or something to do with the sorting hat. Again looking Pinterest
A Harry Potter cake must be available at one of the supermarkets ormake one yourself and a simple party bag of cake and something else nice but not expensive

I'd do a sleepover - doesn't have to cost much. Maybe they could make their own pizzas (possibly prepare the dough for bases), then do a few pamper things (homemade face masks maybe) or games on a console if you have one. Stick on a film and provide some snacks.

The nice thing about that age is that they just want to spend time together. If she is into HP and thinks her friends will be too then just do a movie marathon ....offer them food now and then and let them get on with it.

Sorting cupcakes! Instead of a birthday cake, make or buy cupcakes. Cut in through the top to hollow out space for frosting. Make frosting in Gryffindor red, Syltherin green, Hufflepuff yellow and Ravenclaw blue, fill equal numbers of cupcakes with each, then frost over the top in regular vanilla or chocolate frosting, decorating if you want with red, yellow, green, blue M&Ms or similar, but nothing that gives away what colour is inside.

If they're not all massive HP fans who will already know, you can print out something with the 4 houses of Hogwarts, and the attributes of members of each house.

Each kid chooses a cupcake and bites into it to see which house they've been sorted into.

Do you have a hot glue gun? My daughter made awesome wands with leftover plastic chopsticks, a hot glue gun, and acrylic paint.

Do a sleepover - so fewer friends but longer.

Provide the Harry Potter movies so they can watch as many as they like.

How many friends? If enough, you could organise a small Harry potter themed quiz with sweetie / chocolate prizes

A piñata made from papier mache shaped like a dementor.

There are some really great ideas for HP themed parties on line. It depends how much HP she actually wants but you can do wands and reading tea leaves and quidditch and spells if you want.

Chocolate frogs (Freddos) and lots of jelly beans

This reminds me of something that one of my really nice friends did. Made a voldemort head piñata around a balloon with paper mache then pop the balloon and fill with sweets. It took about 3 days to make!! The kids were in such a frenzy at the Harry Potter party it took them about 10 seconds to smash it to pieces! Haha!

Movie , pizza, sleepover with no bedtime and lots of treats.

Ooh, sleepover is a good shout!

I did a sleepover for my DDs recent 11th birthday. I got a cheap projector and hooked it up to the Xbox and turned her bedroom into a mini cinema. Popcorn. Pizza. Cake. Movies. She's mad on Harry Potter so we made potion mocktails and we lit the bedroom with loads of those little fake tea lights to make it look magical.