As requested, I'm sharing some photos from our family's
Harry Potter Christmas Feast on Christmas Eve, 2018.
Lots of photos, so be prepared. Grab a warm
beverage and enjoy!
Our granddaughter had a list of things to help get
ready, and she did a few things each day
preceding Christmas Eve. She pasted
the emblems on the house banners, colored the
labels for the Potions, mixed the potions,
(had a grand time mixing water and food coloring!)
and helped cut and glue wings to the flying keys.
On Christmas Eve, she was the one
to set the table and decorate each place. Pretty
impressive for a 9 year-old, I think!
Each person got a golden snitch, made from a
foil-wrapped Ferrero Rocher chocolate, with gold
wings (cut from a gold plastic poinsettia) hot-glued
onto the foil to create the 'wings.'
The jars of Honeydukes sweets were placed down
the center of the table, and Christmas crackers were
placed on each plate. We had a fun time popping
them, and everyone was pretty cooperative
about wearing their tissue-paper crown and
reading their jokes! Our granddaughter even made
Place Cards for each person, with their name
and a little Harry Potter drawing on each. There
was a lightning bolt (scar) flying broom, snitch,
and a 9 3/4 sign, to name a few.
I just picked likely-looking candy to place in each
Honeydukes candy jar. The 'Cockroach Clusters'
were peanut-butter chocolate Munchies,
and the 'Nougats' were Cookies and Cream
Munchies. The acid pops are Caramel Apple suckers,
and of course the Licorice Wands were red licorice
sticks. My daughter also made chocolate covered
pretzel 'wands,' but I didn't get a photo of her chocolate
and sprinkled goodies...they disappeared pretty
quickly!
The 'Every Flavored Beans' were just gourmet
jelly beans -- no vomit or earwax flavored beans
in this jar! Gummy worms were 'Flobber Worms'
and plain old Salt Water Taffy. My mom was
delighted to discover the pink taffy was
purchased the taffy and Zots. (I buy sugar-free
chocolates for my Mom from this delightful family-run
candy makers every year) Zots is a candy that
fizzes in the mouth, so that's why I chose it for
the 'Fizzing Whizbees'. No levitation occurred,
however! I refrained from buying the actual
Ants in a sucker, or the crunchy
crickets that Coons Candy sold!
One nice thing for the feast
was being able to re-use many of the
various-shaped glass jars and bottles that
we had used as decor at our daughter's wedding!
The potions lined up on the kitchen counter, in
front of the row of candles. I had a lot of tapers in
holders, but forgot to light them before dinner!
The mad rush to get everything ready, you know.
The granddaughter colored these labels, and chose
what to put in each bottle. She had fun choosing
the colors for the contents.
She used scraps of silk flower leaves in the jar of
Gillyweed, and the Mermaid tears had black glitter
in the colored liquid. (black glitter being the only
color I had, leftover from Halloween!)
Golden Snitches are the magical flying balls that are
the object of the game Quidditch. Young wizards fly
around the Quidditch pitch trying to catch the Snitch
to win the game. There's more to it than that, but
I'll spare you the complicated details!
We had fairly normal food for our feast which included
roast beef, turkey breast, mashed potatoes, gravy,
green beans, a relish tray, and sausage, cheese,
and crackers. Pecan pie is the granddaughter's
favorite, so it definitely had to be on the menu,
along with Treacle Tart.
In the Harry Potter books, Treacle Tart was said to
be Harry's favorite dessert. This is my second try, and
I must say I am rubbish at the topping! I couldn't
manage the lattice crust, so I tried to do Harry's
round glasses frames and the lightening bolt.
There's a star thrown on there too, and even though
it looks very messy, it tasted very good. I was careful
not to overwork the crust this time, and it was more
tender. We don't have Golden Syrup where I live,
and instead of ordering it online (which is a bit
pricey) I used Karo syrup, a tablespoon of molasses,
and a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar in the
lemony filling. Tasted quite good if I do say so
myself. Just gotta work on that topping, or
leave it off completely!
The Hogwarts Wizarding School
House Banners: Hufflepuff, Gryffindor,
Slytherin and Ravenclaw. Just drawn
and cut from cardstock. I used images from
the internet to draw from. The Grandkids decided
to hang them from the curtains. Please
excuse my dust!
Flying keys were hung from the
kitchen/living room pass-through.
Flying keys were one of the challenges that had
to be solved in order to reach The Sorcerer's Stone,
in the first Harry Potter book.
View from the kitchen, candles lit, Potions behind
the array of food. This only shows the desserts,
cheese and relish tray. I didn't get a shot of the
main courses, (buffet style on top
of the stove) as we wanted to eat it while it
was still warm! I don't know how my mom
has successfully done all those family dinners
for 30 plus years, and get everything done at the
right time! My son helped a lot with the cooking,
so that was key to getting it all done. Oh, and
we had the stuff to make Butterbeer (Creme
soda and ice cream floats) but everyone
was too full! The grandson did enjoy the
Pumpkin Juice. (actually apple juice, orange
juice, a few tablespoons of pumpkin, and
pumpkin pie spice)
Linking up with Elizabeth's T Tuesday blog post,
and hoping my Potions will 'count' as a
beverage reference. In case you want to be able
to breathe under water, you can have some
Gillyweed!
Happy New Year 2019!
