Harry Potter Escape Room

This birthday party took a lot of planning and turned out great! It ended up being a mix of ideas I made up along with a few I found online. One thing I did for his last birthday that made a huge difference was schedule our church building to have the party at. It has a gym, bathrooms, a kitchen, and plenty of room. Plus, I don't have to clean it before and figure out how to keep his younger siblings busy and out of the way. It worked out great for David's Nerf party and I decided to go ahead and schedule the church building for the escape room as well. 

The party began in one of the larger classrooms. I had a long table set up where they could go through a Harry Potter Magic Eye 3D book or play the Bean Boozled game. (Just as a side note, I got all of the Harry Potter books I used from the library which worked out great!)

After about 15 minutes, we got started. I read a letter addressed to them from Professor Dumbledore saying that he needed their help finding 5 horcruxes and what room to start their search in. Once they found the room, the fun began!

Room 1: Prepping for Hogwarts

The first room was set up with pre-Hogwarts things. We brought in a cart from the kitchen to look like the treat cart from the Hogwarts Express. For treats, I included lemon drops, acid pops (Great value Sour suckers), and fizzing whizzbees that we made the week before. I know it's a small thing, but the sour suckers came in a swirled design with a clear wrapper so they worked perfectly!

The goal of this room was to solve an equation using the word "Alohomora." There were clues and papers hidden around the room that let the kids know what number each letter represented.

Here's where I hid the papers:

A: On an Acceptance letter. The letter (A) and number (4) where written in red on one envelope.

L: L5 was written in toothpaste under Hedwig in the birdcage.

O: On the Marauder's Map. They had a clue that told them where to look.

H: Written on a paper and hidden in the lemondrops.

M: In a puzzle box. This one took a while, but they figured it out.

R: On a sudoku puzzle. I wrote the letter R in a square and the kids had to solve it enough to find out what number goes in that square.

It went a little slow until I told them to try opening the suitcases. One had the lock on it, but the other was open. Inside, they found the puzzle box, a school supplies list, a Harry Potter robe snuggie we found at the thrift store, and the letter/numbers equation page.

Once they found all the numbers and solved the equation, they had the 3 digit code to open the locked suitcase. Inside it they found school textbooks (with a few DIY potion recipes inside), a wand (to turn on the hanging candles in the next room), and a letter from Professor McGonagall telling them to collect their school supplies and bring them to the Great Hall in Room 12. Once they read the letter, it was a mad dash for everyone to find the next room. 

Room 2: The Great Hall

This room already had a large wooden table in it which worked perfectly. I hung candles from the ceiling and borrowed my mother in law's gold chargers. For snacks, I used some ideas I saw online and we had Gryffindor Grapes, Slytherin Snakes (gummy worms), Huffle Puffs (cheese puffs), Raven Claws (bugles), and Deviled Dragon Eggs that I made the day before. I also had a goblet of fire/triwizard cup I made with a vase from the thrift store. I ended up putting an extra lamp in the corner which helped with the lighting in the room.

In this room, there were two horcruxes they needed to find.

For the first one, I put little stickers on the bottom of chess pieces. Once placed in order, it spelled out "Room 12." They had to find this room the find the horcrux.

The second one took a little longer I had strips of paper on the small table by the Goblet of Fire. Some of them had the names of the competitors and some had what looked like random lines. There were also two puzzles pages where the kids had to unscramble letters to find two words that completed a sentence. The sentence told them to hold the papers over the light. If they held the random lines papers on top of each other over the light, it had the code for a lock. (Not gonna lie. That part needed a few extra hints!) Also, important to note... the light from the Triwizard Cup wasn't quite strong enough to see the code very clearly. Thankfully at the last minute I brought in an extra lamp since the room wasn't bright enough and that worked fine.

Once they had the lock combination, I passed out wands that I had made that had little magnets glued to the end. Inside the box there were phoenix ashes (iron shavings) that they had to wave their wands over to move. I saw this idea online and it honestly didn't go like I thought it would. I don't think I explained this part very well before they got the box open and the kids were so excited and fast that they just ended up using their wands to physically push the stuff out of the way. They missed the "magic" and then wondered why then end of their wands got stuff stuck to it. Haha! Oh well. 

Under the phoenix ashes, was a room number for a room that had another horcrux in it.

Once they found both horcruxes, I announced that it was time for their first potions class and that all the students were to report to the kitchen. I could have labeled it something different, but it still worked.

Room 3: Potion's Class

In this room, we had a "make your own potion" corner with sodas we put our own labels on and pop rocks we labeled as crushed dragon scales.

In this room, they had the potion recipe pages that were tucked inside the textbooks from room one. There was also a note on the table saying that they'll "need a lot of luck to find the last two horcruxes" which led them make the liquid luck potion.

I saw the idea to do this online with a bath bomb, but I thought it would be even better if they could drink the potion after making it! To make it edible, instead of a bath bomb, I made my own giant sugar cubes. To do this, I mixed 1 cup of water with 1 cup of sugar. Once it was combined well enough, I pressed it into two medium sized, plastic Easter eggs. In order for this to work, I placed it in a bowl with one half off the egg so it could dry out. Then the next morning, I flipped it over and took the other half off for that side to dry out. 

Also, I put a taped (so it would be waterproof) piece of paper with a 3 digit code on it in the middle of one of the sugar cubes before it dried out. The code opened a lock on one of the kitchen cupboards which had a horcrux and a golden snitch necklace inside. Once the kids figured out how to open the snitch, they found another 3 digit code that opened a second cupboard. This cupboard had the last horcrux and a letter from Dumbledore congratulating them and sending them back to the room they started in to be sorted into their houses. 

Now that the escape room was officially solved, we all sang Happy Birthday to David and then everyone got a sorting hat cupcake.

With about 30 minutes left, we were able to play quidditch in the gym until parents arrived. just another reason for doing the party at the church! 

For brooms, my sister Julia had the genius idea of using 1/2 inch pipe insulation from Home Depot! It was way cheaper and easier than using pool noodles.

The kids had a blast and everything worked out great!

I will say, looking back on it, there were a few things that ended up being great and a few that just weren't as cool as I expected...

Better than expected:

1. Snacks!

Having snacks in every room was perfect. With a larger group, not everyone was interested in solving the escape room or had something to do towards the end. Having snacks gave them all something to do and just made the experience a little better.

2. Drinkable Liquid Luck

Making the potion at the end something they could actually drink was really fun for the kids and they all had fun getting a cup of it at the end. Plus, this one took more planning so I'm just pumped that it all worked out!

3. Music

My sister Tami was the DJ of the party and it made it so much better! She used a light up lantern Bluetooth speaker my parents gave us and played music from the Harry Potter movies the whole time. It added so much to the atmosphere of the party and made it feel more immersive and fun!

Less Impressive:

1. The iron shavings wand trick

This one had the potential to be much cooler, but I don't think I explained it well. The kids were so excited that when I told them to use their wands to move the phoenix ashes out of the way, they just scraped the iron shaving with the tips of their wands and then were confused about why it was sticking to the ends. Haha! It still worked but wasn't as cool as I thought it would be...

Now that the party's done, I don't think I could ever plan a more fun party! With David's last Nerf birthday party, there was a lot to live up to, and in my opinion, it did! 

Thankfully, we only do birthday parties every other year for our kids so I'll have a good break before the next one. And with how much I had to gather up for this party, we now have a box labeled "Harry Potter" in our garage! Haha! We'll see how long before the next kiddo wants it all pulled out for their party! With it already planned out, all I have to say is "Bring it On!"