Our Harry Potter Party - Treats from Honeydukes

This is the last post in our Harry Potter birthday party series.  I hope you've enjoyed it almost as much as I have enjoyed sharing it with you.  Check out the previous post here. 

You know what I dislike about birthday parties?  Treat bags.  I know, they are a nice gesture, but too often they are just that - a gesture.  Filled with plastic crap that is themed with the party, most of it goes in the trash can as soon as we get home. I hate to be that honest, but it is true - at least at our house.

I was convinced that I did not want that for our kids' goody bags.  I try to buy things that will not be discarded immediately and continued that theme with this party as well.

I decided that only a few items would be in the goody bags to start out with, but the kids could "shop" at Honeydukes sweet shop at the end of the party and load their goody bags up with candy and treats to take home (you're welcome, parents). It was a fun way to wrap up the theme without buying licensed HP stuff that would be tossed soon.

Although my intentions were to make these goody bags (once again, thanks Pinterest), it didn't happen. I did think they were an awesome idea and not terribly hard to do, so I wanted to share them with you!

Instead, I just gave them the brown paper bags and let them shop.  The bags only had a couple of items already in them, but those items I do want to share with you.

I found inexpensive HP glasses here for far cheaper than anywhere else! They took a little while to ship, but well worth the cost of since most of the others I found were $5 a piece!

I also put in some other random (child-appropriate) pins that I got from skycouture (who also made the house pins the kids were wearing).  Unfortunately while writing this post I discovered that she is no longer a etsy shop owner. So if I were you, I would search on etsy because there are several others who make these types of pins and most etsians are great people and easy to work with.

I ordered some HP-ish soaps from an etsian who is no longer on etsy, but look around, as there are many great soap makers on there. I chose a mix of owls, brooms, wizard hats, and frogs. What fun - and they're practical too.

And for those who wanted them - dark mark tattoos.  I couldn't resist.

Other than these items, the bags were to be filled by the kids by visiting Honeydukes (sign available for your use here).  Their choices of treats were

• Giant Lollipops (from Dollar Tree)
• Chocolate Frogs (mold here)
• Licorice Wands (dip the ends of Twizzlers in white chocolate to make a "handle")
• Lemon Drops (Dumbledore's favorite Muggle candy)
• Fudge Flies (mix rice krispies and melted chocolate. Spread on wax paper to dry in tiny/bite-sized pieces)
• Drooble's Best Blowing Gum (gumballs)
• Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans (I just used jelly beans, but you can order the real thing from JellyBelly here)
• Acid Pops (roll sour blow pops in pop rocks - do it just before serving or the rocks will lose their "pop")
• Peppermint Toads (same mold as chocolate frogs but use white chocolate or vanilla and peppermint extract)
• Jelly Slugs (gummy worms)
• Cockroach clusters (melt chocolate, chow mein noodles and peanuts and drop onto wax paper)
• Broomstick Candy
• Considered Pretzel Wands (same as licorice wands but with pretzel sticks) but didn't do it. 

I made tent cards (download here) with each candy's name on it to let people know what they were shopping for. Using a variety of glass jars (some borrowed and some purchased), Honeydukes was established.

They were then allowed to shop to their own desires. The kids thought the names were disgusting and that was a lot of fun for them (especially the boys!). 

And that was that.  End of party. All exhausted. So much fun.

I hope I can live up to this one next year!

If you want some more ideas, I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to Harry Potter party ideas. Some I used and some I didn't but you might find something PERFECT for yours!