CYO Harry Potter Day!
I sometimes liken myself to a voracious reader and despite my love for Young Adult novels like the Hunger Games trilogy and Twilight series I never read any of the Harry Potter books when they were first published. This shocks a lot of people and me too, to be frank. I wish I had read them years ago because I can still recall how bookstores would have launch parties when the next book was released - oh how I would have loved to have participated in that excitement. Despite not reading any of the books I have seen all of the magical movies (own them too), am a huge fan and have been dreaming of reading the books with my kids ever since they were babies.
Last year when our oldest was 7 we started reading the illustrated editions and this past May finished the Prisoner of Azkaban. The oldest two love listening to them, looking at the beautifully illustrated pictures and ask at least 5 questions per page. The books are quite long but keep the kids interest which is important as they sometimes take us months to complete. Finishing a book is a big deal for the kids and we always celebrate by watching the corresponding film. This has worked well with the first two films and would have worked just as well for book three except that we were in the grips of a global pandemic and the kids have barely been allowed to leave our backyard. So our celebration for finishing the Prisoner of Azkaban escalated a bit and became Harry Potter Day!
Before I share my TAKE on what a Harry Potter Day is and how you can create your own I want to back up a bit and explain. A few years ago I was down a rabbit hole on the internet and discovered all of these Harry Potter LEGO sets from 2011 and even dating back to 2001. Of course, they were all sold out or cost an arm and a leg so when LEGO started releasing new sets in 2018 I was thrilled and started collecting them and have been since that time. Initially, I had planned to give the kids a set or two for Christmas or their birthday but either forgot or decided that they already had too much and eventually I had compiled 12 Harry Potter LEGO sets! What was I to do with all these sets?
Well, my slightly impractical mind concocted the idea of a creating a Harry Potter Day where we build the sets all day while watching the movies. I thought what could be more memorable and exciting for a child than that? I imagined we would do it on Harry’s actual birthday or that it would rain that day so it was best to be inside, that we were in a larger home so we could properly store the completed sets and that my kids were a bit older so they did most of the building and that my youngest didn’t grab pieces and hide them under furniture. Basically, I was holding onto this fabulous idea for another year but then the pandemic hit and we were self isolating for months and this idea was pushed to the forefront of my mind…even more so when we finished the third book and needed to find a way to celebrate the end of the school year. The lesson here being there is never going to be a perfect time for anything so if you want to do something to create memories with your family there is no time like the present. Read on for my TAKE on a creating a Harry Potter Day with your family! I hope you have as much fun as we did…much to my husband’s dismay I just found out that there LEGO will be launching new Harry Potter LEGO sets on August 1, 2020 so perhaps we will get to this again next year!
Surprise kids with a ticket on the Hogwarts Express and a letter explaining about Harry Potter Day. I found this template for the ticket and this for the letter on Pinterest. The letter can be used for various things like a trip to Universal but I just changed it to suit my needs. You can even download your own Harry Potter font - so there are really endless options to make this special! Our letter shared that they would be watching the first three Harry Potter movies, building LEGO sets, eating candy and pizza while in their pajamas. They were thrilled!
We surprised the kids with their Hogwarts Express tickets after lunch so they quickly got dressed into their pajamas and costumes and settled in to watch the first movie. Once our toddler took her afternoon nap we started in on the LEGO sets. There were 12 in all and they ended up taking three days instead of one but these sets are really spectacular and having them all set up together is awesome. It’s hard to narrow it down but our top three favorite builds were: The Knight Bus, The Great Hall and The Whomping Willow. Also, I’m not sure why we’ve never done this before but we used these trays (we mostly use them for kinetic sand) and they were amazing in helping us to avoid lost bricks.
For snacks during the movies we popped popcorn and I picked up some Harry Potter themed candy from our local shop, Amy’s Candy Bar or you can order a selection of candy from Amazon. The gummy slugs and chocolate frogs were the favorites in our house. If you want to be a bit EXTRA you could even make themed Harry Potter food from The Exclusive Harry Potter Cookbook, including a batch of butter beer!
If amping up a celebration with decor is more your thing you could add Hogwarts house pennants or a customizable banner. We had pennants from a prior business trip to Orlando and I ordered the banner from the Krafty Hooker on Etsy. The Etsy shop was able to personalize the banner based on my request, accommodate an expedited timeline and I was so pleased at it how it turned out.
Depending on the attention span of your children you might want to plan for time between movies…maybe even a walk. This helped our kids focus and get some energy out. If you’d like some non movie or LEGO activities you can also incorporate some activities and/or games. Harry Potter Paper Flyers and Harry Potter Labriynth and/or Harry Potter Headbandz.are all excellent and would be a great addition as a gift or perhaps as an alternative to playing with LEGO.
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