We are huge Harry Potter fans. Sure we don’t get to Universal Studios for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter as much as we’d like, but we LOVE Harry Potter. We love the movies, the books, we love Wizard Chess and butterbeer. If it’s Harry Potter-related, we love it. So every year my daughter and I have a Harry Potter Movie Marathon Weekend.
Harry Potter Movie Marathon Weekend
We usually hold our Harry Potter Movie Marathon in February, because in Ohio, that’s really the point we start getting sick of winter and need something to look forward to. So we plan lots of snacks and a few other fun little things and plan to stay in for the weekend and it’s one of our favorite things to do during the winter.
But with so many people now staying at home, we thought now would be the perfect time to share in case you’re looking for a fun-themed weekend and ways to bring a little magic home.
Harry Potter Movie Marathon Movies
During our Harry Potter Movie Marathon, we watch ALL of the Harry Potter Movies. We start at the beginning and we watch them all the way through. Generally, we start in the morning and stay up as late as we possibly can and then pick up where we left off the next morning. We own the box set, but you can also buy them in a digital format too if that’s your preference.
Eventually, we may add the Fantastic Beasts series to this movie marathon, but for now, it is just Harry Potter movies. Check out the Harry Potter Movie Marathon Web Story for a quick glimpse of everything we cover in this post!
Harry Potter Movie Marathon Foods
Every year we like to change up what we have for food during our Harry Potter Movie Weekend. We have a few staples that we always have and one of those things is butterbeer. Butterbeer is a must for us. We love it hot, we love it cold, iced, in the form of a latte. You name it, we love it. Over the years we’ve tried our fair share of Butterbeer recipes and we think we’ve finally found some of our favorites. We created a butterbeer pancake recipe, perfect for the start of the movie marathon! We also included a hot Butterbeer recipe in this post, but we’ve also tried this recipe from our friend Susan and it’s just delicious.
While our meals always include some kind of Harry Potter themed or British food, I was really lucky to be gifted this Harry Potter themed cookbook from my friend Susan at Christmas last year. Of course this was a perfect reason to try out some of the recipes!
Recipes from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook
We were able to try the Pumpkin Juice from this cookbook, which I highly recommend because its so nice and refreshing; and quite honestly is a great little break from all the sweetness of the butterbeer. We made a big batch of it and were able to enjoy it all weekend.
We also tried our hand at the Pumpkin Pasties, which were super easy and a great breakfast pastry without being too sweet.
From this cookbook, we also tried Cottage Pie, which is essentially like Shepherd’s Pie but with ground beef. This was great for dinner during our Harry Potter Movie Marathon and was especially nice since our movie marathon weekend just happened to be during a cold and rainy one. We recently also tried bangers and mash from this book which was great; but truthfully you could probably plan any meal with a British theme and it would work. So cozy and comforting!
Aside from the foods we tried in the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, we also tried a recipe for butterbeer pancakes which were absolutely amazing. I’ll be adding that recipe to the blog as soon as I can recreate it and get the right measurements, because ya know, apparently I didn’t plan for that.
We couldn’t help but try our hand at some snitch truffles! These are actually a lot easier than they look, but we basically used this recipe, brushed them with edible gold dust and added white chocolate little wings. Not that difficult and we loved the end result.
As you can see, a lot of our Harry Potter Movie Marathon revolves around food, but we kind of love a good theme especially when it involves food; so we are totally fine with it. 
Harry Potter Movie Marathon Photo Opps
Aside from food, we also love to incorporate some fun themed photo opps! We created a super easy wall to take pictures in front of and bought some fun photo props from Amazon.
We also created house banners and a platform 9 & 3/4 using a brick backdrop and a quick and easy cutout.
Other Harry Potter Fun for a themed weekend ideas
Aside from watching Harry Potter during our movie marathon weekend, we also love incorporating other fun Harry Potter things in the mix. After watching the movies(or reading the books!) we always love a good game of Harry Potter trivia. I’ll admit, my daughter usually wins, but it’s always fun for me to try to challenge her knowledge! You’ll likely fare a bit better if you have read the books, since some of the trivial knowledge is based on the books, but if you’ve seen all of the movies, you still have a pretty good chance with this one!
We are also huge fans of a grueling game of Wizard’s Chess. While the chess pieces may not be life size like we see in the movies, and thankfully so, they’re still pretty cool and this is always a game we look forward to.
Harry Potter Coloring Sheets
Need to take a little break from the television? Grab our latest coloring sheet featuring Luna Lovegood! Grab it for FREE, here in the shop. And check out all our favorite Harry Potter shirts to help get you in the mood!
Harry Potter Movie Marathon
So there you have it, our Harry Potter Movie Marathon weekend! We love celebrating this every year and it’s one of our favorite “events” that we look forward to. We hope this inspires you to create your own Harry Potter- or other magically inspired!- movie marathon weekend.
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