Harry Potter-inspired Birthday Party (Part 4, Quidditch)

I thought I could package all the party games together in one post but we all know that Quidditch deserves a post all to itself ;)…..

You can google rules for Quidditch, and there are plenty of people who shared how they played at their childrens’ parties – you can find some I’ve pinned on my Harry Potter Party Pinterest board. So the birthday boy and I set about creating some rules that would fit with our party.

How we played:

All players must stay on their broomsticks. Since they were actual sticks, they must all be careful with how they moved around.

But first they had to learn how to fly their broomsticks. So we had a quick broomstick flying lesson!

Everyone stood with their broom to their right. “Up!” they all said. Nothing happened. “Up!” they said again. Again, nothing happened. Then the ‘professor’ saw something in the distance and told everyone to “Look over there!” When they looked back, his broomstick had magically flown up to his hand! Amazing!

The students were ready to move on to playing…

The two teams as decided from the previous game lined up at either end of our games area. The Quaffle (a largish, light ball) and two Bludgers (handballs) were thrown into the middle of the pitch. Each team ran to get the balls. The Quaffle was passed between team-mates with the aim of throwing it through the appropriate goal. Bludgers were thrown at whoever had the Quaffle (not too hard, they weren’t playing brandings!) and if that person was hit, they must immediately pass the ball and stand still for 3 seconds.

We didn’t bother with a Snitch at all, and by the end of the game the Bludgers had been completely forgotten!

We did need to re-negotiate the rules (ie add some new ones!) – no goalies to guard the goal, and you must be 5 metres from the goal to shoot.

Here are the broomsticks that we made:

They were made from sticks we collected from a Gum Tree in our back yard. Clean straw that would normally be used for our bunny was tied on with twine. I think the party boys were impressed with these!

The goals were made from hula hoops. I used the tutorial from Jonesing2create which was quite straightforward. Unfortunately our goals didn’t cost under $2.50 to make since the hoops cost $4 each. The connectors cost just over $1 each, and we had the stakes already. But we can easily dismantle the goals and turn them back into hoops, and they will be used again.

Here are a few photos from the game:

The boys worked out that having to hold onto their broomstick with one hand was a bit tricky, so they mostly gripped the broomstick with their legs and waddled about! They looked pretty funny! But they had two free hands to throw and catch the Quaffle.

We didn’t keep score for any of the games we played, and no prizes were handed out. I like to think the fun they all had playing unusual games was ‘prize’ enough. And no-one has ever complained about not winning a prize!

Next post – the birthday cake…

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