Birthdays and holidays have been very different over the last 6 months than they have been in the past. With the coronavirus and social distancing protocols, we haven’t been able to have the kind of birthday parties we usually would.
My girls, whose birthdays are a week apart in May had a virtual zoom call with family on each of their birthdays. We then had a small backyard gettogether in July with their two best friends (who happen to be brother and sister), my mom, and my aunt.
Luckily we had beautiful weather. We are also lucky that the girls were turning 2 and 4 so they didn’t have a lot of other friends that they would have invited if we were able to do a bigger bash.
But with fall and winter coming, outdoor parties may not be possible. And with Covid, larger gettogethers are not always recommended. Especially depending on where in the world you are, how much space you have, and whether parents would want to stay as well.
Therefore, zoom or google meet parties may be the thing to get your kiddos some face time with their friends and feel celebrated on their special day.
Here’s how I would go about planning a virtual Harry Potter themed Party. You can use the same ideas for whatever party theme you would like.
Pre-Party
If your party guests are local, I would plan a little pre-party drive by. I would bake themed cupcakes for the guests. I would then put together little favor bags for the kiddos with anything they might need for the zoom call (more on that later).
For a Harry Potter themed party, these witch hat cupcakes are super cute. However, instead of the orange frosting, I would use red, blue, green, or yellow for the 4 Hogwarts houses.
For the favor bags I would include printouts for the virtual party activities. I would also include Harry Potter tattoos, pencils, glasses, and a tote bag which can all be found on Oriental Trading. You can also add some candies or treats if you like.
Parents of your guests can drop off gifts for the birthday kiddo if they like to or not. This is totally not required or expected, but I know some parents would love to do that. When they drop off a gift, they can pick up the cupcakes for their kiddos and the party favors.
On the Call
For the call itself, I would put together some fun printable party activities. These are fun games like bingo or word scrambles to fit the theme of the party.
For a Harry Potter themed party, I made 4 different printable activities. The first is to pick your own wizard pet. You can have your guests make their selection and then each person has a turn acting out their animal for the rest to guess.
Then I made a “Pick Your Wizard Name” game where you match up the first letter of your name, your birth month and your birthdate to find your wizard or witch name.
I also put together a wizard profile sheet where you can put your name, your house, your pet, your favorite spell, and more.
Lastly, I put together a bunch of Harry Potter bingo cards. Each guest would get their own unique bingo card and then you can print our the page with all the bingo images and put them in a hat or a jar. Then you can play bingo over the call by pulling the pictures out of the hat.
For the printable pages, you can print them out and give them to guests when they drive by, or you can just email them to guests who live further away or just can’t come by for whatever reason. That way everyone on the call can participate.
Other Ideas
Other ideas include inviting your guests to dress up on the call. They can wear bathrobes and make magic wands to show off on the call.
You can mail out little prizes for the game winners like small stuffed animals or keychains.
Another fun activity would be to have a potions class. Here are some potion ideas from Red Tricycle. We’ve done the DIY lava lamp which is great for this kind of party because all you need is water, oil, a bottle, food coloring, and alka seltzer. This makes it simpler for the parents as well who would have to gather the supplies.
Another fun activity that can work with any party theme is a go and find game. In this game you make a list of attributes and guests have to go and find something that fits that attribute. You can say things like find something green or find something cute, or find something you can measure with. And the kids can hunt around their homes for objects.
Virtual parties are definitely very different, but they can still be a lot of fun. If you would like the Harry Potter party printables I put together, just head on over to my Etsy shop were you can find the printables I describes above plus a few other virtual party themes. If you would like me to create printables for a different theme, you can let me know that as well.
We don’t have to sacrifice fun during these unusual times!
Cheers,
Emily
