Harry Potter Board Games Day

It's another one of those fine days where my inner Potter-phile comes out to play. It's no secret that I'm one of these bloggers with a deep fondness for the Harry Potter series, though I don't think I've properly told you all just how much I love it. Or maybe I have but I didn't think it was enough.

My place was finally set up the way I wanted it, bar a few things such as a proper coffee table, new curtains, and cushion covers, so it was finally time to do something that made it feel like home. I never really host parties, I tend to dislike most parties because they're crowded, noisy, distracting and I want nothing more than to go home and recuperate, but small parties are the only exception to that rule.

I had a hoot hosting this one, even if the planning and preparation for the event was a tad bit on the stressful side.

I created a Harry Potter version of Cards Against Humanity, typing up all of the black and white cards on a document, and then I copied and pasted them into the appropriate places on Bigger, Blacker Cards. I had the cards printed out at Officeworks on the thickest paper that they had in store, and they cost me a mere $3.50 for 10 pages. Aside from Cards Against Harry Potter, we split up the party into two groups, one group played Harry Potter Scene It, while the rest battled against each other at Wizards Chess.

I also prepared a set of trivia questions for the trivia game, ranging from easy to hard.

I ended it with "Finish this quote: Ronald Weasley! How dare you _____" and not a single person got it right. I'm mortified.

I made Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice from scratch for the party, as well as Pumpkin Pasties (both savoury and sweet) and my version of Exploding Bon Bons. The Bon Bons went down really nicely with the guests, they all loved the chocolatey coconutty goodness and then set mouths off with the popping and cracking because of the popping candy that I coated the balls with. I'm going to have a post up on the blog over the next couple weeks with the recipes for the Butterbeer and the Exploding Bon Bons, so look forward to that.

My friend, Nick, kept calling the pumpkin juice Skele-Gro, even though he drank the most of it. The Butterbeer is incredibly addictive and tastes almost exactly like the ones you can get from Wizarding World.

I need to get around to making a proper chess board for the Wizards Chess set. I actually found this set at a thrift store a few years ago, it was the set that came with a biweekly magazine that you had to collect to get all the pieces together. It came with a flimsy cardboard chess board which I threw out. I thought Sean's old chess board would fit but the pieces were too big for it, so we ended up using the board from his Peanuts chess set. It was an odd thing to witness, to see such classic styled pieces on a cartoonish red and blue boards with Peanuts characters around the edge. I need to find green/black and white marble tiles 2 inches wide so I can make the board at home. It won't be easy, but it'll be worth it!

The event went really well, and everyone got to meet new Potter-philes. By the end of the night we were all laughing our heads off together at some of the filthy jokes that ensued from Cards Against Harry Potter. I have such creative and funny friends and I wish I could put the entire game into words, but so much had happened. Sean and I are contemplating hosting another board games day for my 25th birthday in December, the theme being Star Wars to celebrate the release of Rouge One. I'm very excited but I have no idea how I am going to create a menu for this event, but I shall be having a lot of fun coming up with a Star Wars version of CaH.

If you hosted a Harry Potter party, what would you do/make?