We were inspired by the first Harry Potter book to recreate the scene on Christmas Day. After the feast in the great hall, and a snowball fight outside, Harry, Ron and the Weasleys came in to warm up by the fire in Gryffindor common room. As they played wizard's chess, they enjoyed a "...meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake...It had been Harry's best Christmas day ever." And it's the perfect cozy Christmas party menu for any real Potterheads.
Quick Look
- 🎉 Party Theme: Gryffindor Common Room Christmas -with an authentic book-inspired menu
- 👥 Perfect For: 4-10 Harry Potter fans
- 🍽️ Menu: Turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, Christmas cake, tea & butterbeer
- 🎄 Decor: Harry Potter themed Christmas tree, and decorations
- 🎁 Free Printables: Free printable trivia game
Why You'll Love This Harry Potter Christmas Party
- It's book-accurate -This is the ACTUAL meal from the scene when they come in from the snow on Christmas Day, not generic themed food.
- It's cozy, not overwhelming -If you're craving an intimate gathering where everyone actually talks instead of stressing over elaborate decorations.
- It's make-ahead friendly -Trifle improves overnight, and Christmas cake keeps for weeks.
- It's budget friendly -This menu uses simple foods that aren't expensive.
- Free printables included -Downloadable trivia questions and answer sheets
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If you're a Harry Potter fan, you'll love our charming and cozy Harry Potter Christmas party. We took our favourite Harry Potter Christmas scene from the books and brought it to life! Inspired by the description of playing in the snow all afternoon and then coming in to the Gryffindor common room to warm up by the fire, play wizard's chess and eat a cozy meal, we thought it was the perfect party inspiration. We took the menu and decor right out of the book and created the loveliest Christmas gathering ever.
If you're a Harry Potter fan you will also love our Harry Potter DIY decor with free printables where we made our own potion's classroom, Herbology area, and owl post. Also, check our Harry Potter snacks, with all the ideas for themed treats. And for Christmas, you will love our Harry Potter Christmas tree with themed DIY decorations and decor, including a Honeydukes snack trolley, with free printables.
Harry Potter Christmas Party Menu
Taken from chapter 12 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, we wanted to bring this Christmas scene to life. We included everything they describe eating around the fire. And, it really is the most perfect Christmas-y menu. It's also distinctly British. If you're not British, it might be a fun adventure trying some of these British Christmas classics. We also loved that the trifle is a make-ahead, and the sandwiches are quick and easy to put together. It's the perfect snack as you chat menu.
Turkey Sandwiches
The first item in the book that's mentioned is turkey sandwiches. After the feast in the great hall, I guess the house elves who prepared all the food at Hogwarts, needed to use up their turkey leftovers. Turkey sandwiches were the perfect way. I also made my sandwiches for this party with leftover turkey, but if you don't have any then turkey deli meat will do just fine. Top with your favorite mayo, or make a little cranberry mayo to be extra festive! Find my turkey sandwiches with cranberry mayo recipe here.
Crumpets
You might not be used to crumpets. They're a British food, not as common in North America. Earlier in chapter 12 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, it describes how most students at Hogwart's were gone home for Christmas, and the common room was almost empty. Ron and Harry could get the good chairs by the fire. They enjoyed roasting things over the fire -"anything they could spear on a toasting fork -bread, English muffins, marshmallows". Crumpets are a round bread-like food, with distinctive holes in the top. When toasted -which is how they're generally served, the topping melts and goes down into the holes. They're usually topped with butter, and sometimes jam, marmalade, or honey.
Based on the description of toasting items over the fire in the chapter, we assume that they were toasting up their crumpets. If you don't have a fireplace and toasting forks to toast your crumpets, a toaster will suffice. Serve them hot with butter and jam for a very tasty treat.
You can find crumpets at the grocery store, in the bread section, usually beside the English muffins. Be sure to serve them toasted and warm for the best taste.
Trifle
Trifle is a British dessert, made up of layers. The bottom is usually jelly rolls or cake, layered with jelly, and fruit, topped with custard and whipped cream. There are lots of variations of this dessert with different fruit or jelly. We love a simple one made with raspberries. You can find our mini trifle dessert recipe here. For this occasion, we used the same recipe, but instead of making minis, we made one larger one. Our recipe is quick and easy using store bought pound cake and canned custard.
Make your trifle the day before for the flavors to meld together.
Christmas Cake
Christmas cake is one of those desserts that's fallen out of fashion, but I personally think it's underrated. I love the combination of rich cake and dried fruit paired with almond paste and icing on top. There's nothing better with a hot cup of tea. If it's not iced, add a layer of almond paste, and then top with icing. We decorated ours with a vintage Santa's sleigh cake topper and it was perfect for our Christmas party.
Look for fruit cake at the grocery store during the holidays. If you can't find it there, try a British imports store, or substitute your favorite cake.
Serve the cake in small slices. It's quite potent, and a slice that's too big would be a bit overwhelming.
Drinks
Tea
I'm sure that Ron, Harry, and the Weasleys were sipping hot tea as they enjoyed their Christmas evening meal together. And if you're a tea fan, it really is the perfect accompaniment to this meal. Make a big pot and serve with milk and sugar.
Butterbeer
But in the spirit of Christmas cheer, we thought that butterbeer would be a great option too -and it was!
We made our butterbeer starting with a bottle of cream soda, and topping it with whipped cream, and a drizzle of caramel sauce. It was so delicious and the perfect special addition to a party.
Treats
In addition to the meal, we also included some elements described earlier in the chapter. We assumed that the sweets from their Christmas stockings and gifts would still be lying about on the coffee table. There was the tin of fudge that Mrs. Weasley sent to Harry. This easy chocolate walnut fudge is quick to make and a delicious addition. Your guests will love seeing it with the gift tag from Mrs. Weasley and helping themselves.
Also on the table were a few treats from Honeydukes. There was the chocolate frog, a Honeydukes lollipop, and a box of Bertie's Every Flavor Beans. You can find the free printable chocolate frog boxes, Bertie's Every Flavor Bean boxes, and Honeydukes stickers for the lollipops here.
Harry Potter Christmas Decorations
The inspiration for our party was the Gryffindor common room, so our family room with a comfy leather couch and a fireplace was perfect.
Harry Potter Christmas Tree
We added a Harry Potter inspired Christmas tree, with lots of DIY Harry Potter themed Christmas ornaments. We surrounded the tree with owl post inspired Christmas packages too.
Mantel
On the fireplace mantel we decorated with a book themed wreath made from an old Harry Potter book, and there were also our DIY Christmas stockings inspired by Mrs. Weasley's famous Christmas sweaters. We made them from upcycled sweaters found at the thrift store, so no knitting required!
And them we added garland, and lights and a few fun Harry Potter inspired items like our DIY mandrake plants, vintage books, and lots of brass candlesticks. You can see all our decor and how we made it here in our Harry Potter Christmas tree post.
Coffee Table
Our main goal was to make the room feel warm and cozy. Since we served in front of the fireplace, we used the coffee table as our main table. This isn't the grand dining hall set up with Christmas crackers and a feast, this is the cozy common room. We decorated the table with lots of vintage pieces like the brass candlestick holders that we found at the thrift store. There was also a garland to make it feel Christmasy, a magic wand, and the Marauder's Map. Any Harry Potter props make a nice addition.
We set a separate small table over by the fireplace with the crumpets ready for toasting. If you can't toast them over the fire, a regular toaster works just as well.
Party Activities
Harry Potter Movie Marathon
This setup is perfect for a movie marathon. Or if not a whole marathon, pick your favorite Harry Potter movie, or just start with the first one. This menu is perfect to enjoy while you watch, especially with the addition of the Honeydukes snack trolley, but more on that later.
Free Printable Chrsitmas Trivia Game
A great Harry Potter party activity to do with friends is a game of trivia. Use our free printable for your questions. Put your friends into teams -perhaps by Harry Potter house? And don't forget to have prizes! Harry Potter themed, of course. 😉
You can access our free printable Harry Potter Christmas trivia sheets, with a list of questions and answers for the host, and a sheet for teams to write down their answers in our Free Resource Library. Access is free for subscribers. Subscribe below for instant access. Check your email for our password (you might have to check your junk folder, where it might be by mistake), then head to the Free Resource Library and scroll through to the Harry Potter Christmas Trivia.
If you want to arrange your friends into houses, may we suggest making these adorable sorting house treats? They were made with caramel squares and M&Ms in the house colours. Just form the caramel into a sorting hat shape, don't forget the eyebrows, and hide a colored M&M inside. When someone chooses one and takes a bite, their house will be revealed. Just be sure to have the right number of hats, evenly distributed so that your teams are even.
Harry Potter Themed Gift Exchange
For the true Potterheads, a Harry Potter themed gift exchange would be a lot of fun. Have everyone bring a themed gift for under $20, and wrapped. Draw for numbers and then have your guests, starting with the person who drew #1 choose a gift and open it. The next person can either steal their gift or choose a new one and open it. If your gift has been stolen, you can steal someone else's, or open a new one. Each gift can only be stolen twice -or whatever number you choose ahead of time.
We love this fun game at Christmas and adding the twist of Harry Potter themed gifts makes it extra fun. You can also include a special gift for the most popular gift if you want to give your guests even more incentive to come up with the best gift.
Use our fun free printable Christmas owl post stamps and labels for wrapping. How fun to wrap up something in the shape of a broom or witch hat like these ones, which are actually just made of cardboard, and have something else entirely inside!
Ugly Sweater or Costum Contest
Inspired by Mrs. Weasley's hand knit Christmas sweaters, invite guests to come in their favorite or ugliest Christmas sweater. Or up the anti even more and ask guests to come dressed as their favorite Harry Potter character. Have everyone vote on the best dressed. Be sure to have a prize for the winner.
Honeydukes Party Favours
We love a good party favor, and for a Harry Potter Christmas party, nothing could beat a Honeydukes Snack Trolley loaded with treats. We included some little bags, complete with free printable Honeydukes stickers on them, so guests could help themselves and take some home as a party favor. We included lots of the treats from the books, like our DIY chocolate frogs, and Bertie's Every Flavor Beans. We also made homemade Coconut Ice that all the coconut lovers adored.
Find exactly how we put the whole cart together as well as the free printables in our Harry Potter Christmas tree blog post here.
This whole party was so much fun. The food was easy and delicious, and perfectly festive. There's something magical about gathering with people you love in a cozy space, eating comfort food, and celebrating the stories that shaped us. That's what Harry experienced in the Gryffindor common room, and that's exactly what you can create.
More Harry Potter Inspiration
Frequently Asked Questions
You can find crumpets at most grocery stores in the bread section, usually beside the English muffins. If your local store doesn't carry them, you can order them online from Amazon or try a British import shop. You could also find a recipe and make them from scratch.
Absolutely! Use vegetarian turkey alternatives or make hearty veggie sandwiches with roasted vegetables, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. For the trifle, use plant-based custard and whipped cream. Look for vegan crumpets and Christmas cake when you purchase, or make your own.
Make the trifle the day before -it's actually better that way! The fudge keeps for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container. Make sandwiches, toast crumpets, and make butter beet right before serving for best results.
Not at all! While a fireplace adds to the Gryffindor common room atmosphere, you can create the same cozy vibe with lots of candles (battery-operated are safest), warm lighting, and a fireplace video on your tv. It's all about the warm, intimate feeling.
Yes! Our butterbeer recipe uses cream soda, whipped cream, and caramel - completely kid-friendly with no alcohol. It's sweet and delicious, perfect for all ages.
If you use any of the Harry Potter Christmas Party Ideas or any other ideas on the blog, please leave a comment below. Tag me on instagram @lifeisaparty, and be sure to pin these ideas to Pinterest.
About Dannyelle
Dannyelle is the creator of Life is a Party, where she shares budget-friendly party ideas and seasonal decor with a focus on authentic details over generic themes. Her Harry Potter Christmas series features DIY projects and book-accurate celebrations that bring the Wizarding World to life at home. Her philosophy? Make a fuss over the things that matter - without losing yourself in the stress.
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