Christmas is a magical time of year – and one mum has taken that literally by creating her very own Harry Potter-themed Christmas tree.
The much-loved books and films have been brought to life, with decorations that include broomsticks, hand-made baubles and even a mini Dobbie the house-elf, all for just £92.
If you’re all out of bauble display ideas or want an alternative Christmas tree, then you might want to take some inspiration from mum-of-three Louise Howard. Running her own party and balloon business in Bristol means that Louise is a dab hand at decorating and always has craft bits to hand.
Harry Potter-themed Christmas tree
‘Last year, we created a Grinch tree, which we all loved,’ Louise told money-saving Black Friday app. ‘This year we were struggling to come up with an idea for a theme, until one of us suggested a Harry Potter tree.’
Image credit: Louise Howard
Initially, Louise thought it was an amazing idea as the family all love Harry Potter, but then she started to have doubts about whether she could make the theme look festive.
‘I’d given all of my girls’ Harry Potter items to a friend for her kids’ bedroom,’ she recalls. ‘So we had nothing except a 10-year-old Dobby mask from a World Book Day costume along with a pillowcase we’d used for his dress!’
Not to be defeated, Louise decided to use the mask and pillowcase and dress up an old Santa she had to make a mini Dobby, that sits at the base of the tree. To help keep costs down even further, Louise started by selling her decorations from last year’s tree in order to pay for new ones. She also used their
best artificial Christmas tree again.
Image credit: Louise Howard
‘Our tree is actually 20 years old,’ says Louise. ‘I purchased it for my daughter’s first Christmas and she is 21 next month! I’ve used it every year and I would never change it unless I really have to.’
‘It was originally from Woolworths and has been through three house moves with us. When I first met my husband he had always had a real tree and for the first year or two, he suggested we get a real one – now even he’s attached to it.’
The very first item that Louise bought for the tree was the topper – ‘I went straight on Amazon and purchased a sorting hat,’ she says. ‘Then I went to B&M and Home Bargains to see what Harry Potter things they had. I managed to get a few bits, but nothing much.’
‘I almost just used the white and silver baubles we already had, but by this point, I’d already spent £38 on the sorting hat and some floating candle lights, so I decided to rein it in and keep it cheaper.’
Image credit: Louise Howard
Louise found some gold and burgundy Gryffindor-theme colour baubles in B&M. She printed out some Harry Potter-themed clip art from Google onto sticker paper, cut them out and stuck them to the baubles.
‘I thought about other things that related to Harry Potter too,’ she says. ‘An owl and stag, letters, a broom, a Golden snitch and so on, and I started to source them. ‘
‘The Range had a Harry Potter writing set, which I used for the envelopes, and that filled some quite big areas. I also printed some templates for chocolate frog boxes online and made them up, then I made some Ferrero Rocher chocolates into golden snitches (this could be done much cheaper with gold baubles though!),’ she adds.
Image credit: Louise Howard
Louise bought some gold poinsettias from Amazon and collected some acorns from a local park, which she sprayed gold. ‘I had lots of these, so again, they filled a lot of space,’ she says. ‘I also ordered little glass bottles with lids, which the children filled with different colour creams to make “potion bottles” that they stuck tiny labels to.’
‘To fill the gaps without spending tons of money, I printed lots of images off Google, such as the signs of locations like Diagon Alley, and the newspaper articles from the films,’ she says. ‘I planned to laminate these and use them on the tree, but we didn’t need to use them in the end.’
‘All in all the whole tree cost £92, plus a mini
Hogwarts Express train that I bought for £65 on Amazon. I’ll eventually sell the train, hat and baubles to fund next year’s tree. In fact, I’ve already had people message to say they will buy everything we have!’
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