Hogwarts Great Hall hosting Christmas dinner for dozens of Harry Potter fans

By Adam Poltrack October 4, 2015

harry potter christmas dinner hogwarts big — Richard Croft [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

If you haven’t wondered what it would be like to attend classes at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, which house you might belong to, or what quidditch position you’d be best suited to, then you’re probably not a Harry Potter fan.

But if you wondered far too much about all of the above, you may be able to make at least part of that fantasy come true.

Screen Crush reports that on Thursday, December 3 at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour in London, Hogwarts Great Hall will be decked out in its Christmas-y best and will host Harry Potter superfans for a holiday feast. A wand from Ollivander’s will be waiting at each seat and attendees will have the opportunity to scarf down two courses from a menu inspired by the films (e.g. Flaming Christmas Pudding).

So what’s the catch, you ask? The price. The price is most certainly the catch. The experience will set you back 230 British pounds, which translates to around $350 American dollars. Yikes.

That being said, we’re sure there are some fans out there that would consider that a pittance for what’s included in this tour.

In addition to dinner, the package allows fans to explore iconic sets from the movie, take dessert on Platform 9 3/4 alongside the Hogwarts Express, take a stroll up Diagon Alley, drink Butterbeer in the backlot cafe, and catch a glimpse of the Hogwarts castle exterior, dusted with a layer of (fake) snow.

So long as he who must not be named isn’t on the guest list, that sounds like a pretty good time.

The only thing that’s missing is shot of polyjuice potion to let you assume the identity of your favorite character. We call Professor Dumbledore.

Merry Christmas, Potter fans!

Topics

Contributor

Adam is an A/V News Writer for Digital Trends, and is responsible for bringing you the latest advances in A/V…

Entertainment

The best Harry Potter movies, ranked by Rotten Tomatoes

Neville, Hermione, Ron, and Harry inside a dark tunnel in HP and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

The Wizarding World began with the Harry Potter movies before evolving into a sprawling if uneven cinematic universe. The tale of The Boy Who Lived enchanted fans the world over, becoming a cultural phenomenon and reaping massive critical and commercial success. Harry's story ended with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, a suitably epic and satisfying conclusion to the saga that defined a generation.

Not willing to abandon one of their most successful franchises, Warner Bros. greenlit a series of spinoffs beginning with 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This new series failed to achieve the same critical and commercial reception as its predecessor, but it successfully kept the Wizarding World afloat. Eleven films have premiered so far, including Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, as well as the blockbuster video game Hogwarts Legacy. Most of the Potter movies earned considerable acclaim from critics, as evidenced by their high scores in the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but the Fantastic Beasts entries haven't been as lucky.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald (2018) -36%

Entertainment

Harry Potter: Fantastic mistakes and how to avoid them

Blended image of two Grindelwalds and Newt Scamander from the Fantastic Beasts franchise.

The Fantastic Beasts franchise's attempt to roar back into life was quasi-successful. The Crimes of Dumbledore received mixed reviews from critics, who called it an improvement over its predecessor while still questioning its existence and purpose. Three movies in, this attempt at expanding the Wizarding World is uneven, to say the least. It doesn't help that the franchise remains unfocused, clumsily trying to replicate the formula that made the Potter films so successful while lacking any of their gravitas and emotional resonance. Audiences don't care about awkward outsider Newt Scamander and his merry band of misfits, nor are they invested in the doomed romance between Dumbledore and Grindelwald.

Fantastic Beasts is a case study of how not to expand a franchise. From the start, the series seemed like a shameless cash-grab, a thinly-veiled attempt at milking the revolutionary cow that is the Wizarding World. Yet, despite a committed ensemble of capable actors and impressive VFX, this new story's freshness or originality gets lost in a sea of questionable casting and narrative choices, confusing storytelling, and a slew of behind-the-scenes scandals that have become more interesting than the movies themselves.
Doomed from the start

Entertainment

Harry Potter stars get teary-eyed in trailer for 20th Anniversary special

The cast of Harry Potter, 20 years later.

Twenty years ago, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone kicked off an epic eight-film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's acclaimed novels that not only changed the lives of fans, but of the cast and crew that made them. And to celebrate the occasion, HBO is taking viewers back to Harry and Co.'s old stomping grounds in a new reunion special, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts. While the special was first announced last month, HBO Max has finally released a first look at what fans can expect to see.

In the opening moments of the trailer, it's easy to mistake it as a clip from a new Harry Potter sequel. As cast members return to the various iconic sets of the films -- platform 9 3/4, Diagon Alley, Hogwarts' Great Hall -- the line between their characters and their true personas seems to slip away. In some emotional interview footage, reunited stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson openly refer to each other as family. As Grint says, that's because they've watched each other grow up and have maintained their personal connections in the 10 years since the final Harry Potter film hit theaters. And there's a lot of hugging.