50 Fun Facts About Harry Potter Christmas

What anonymous Christmas gift does Harry receive in his first year at Hogwarts?

His father's Invisibility Cloak arrived with an unsigned note reading 'Use it well'; Dumbledore later admitted he had sent it.

What do Harry and Ron drink on Christmas Day in Chamber of Secrets to sneak into the Slytherin common room?

Polyjuice Potion turned them into Crabbe and Goyle, but Hermione's dose held a cat hair, and they came back to find her with a cat's ears and tail.

Why do Ron and his brothers stay at Hogwarts for Christmas in Harry's first year?

Their parents are visiting Charlie in Romania, so Ron, Fred, George and Percy all stay on, which gives Harry company for his first Christmas at Hogwarts.

What did Fred bewitch Percy's prefect badge to read at Christmas dinner in Chamber of Secrets?

'Pinhead': Percy, who had not noticed the change, kept asking what everyone at the table was sniggering at.

Who single-handedly delivers the usual twelve Christmas trees to the Hogwarts Great Hall?

Rubeus Hagrid hauls all twelve up to the castle himself, leaving the teachers to decorate them.

Which teacher did the Weasley twins' bewitched snowballs follow around in Harry's first December at Hogwarts?

Professor Quirrell: the snowballs kept bouncing off the back of his turban, so the twins were unknowingly pelting Lord Voldemort in the face.

Which game set does Harry win from a cracker at his first Hogwarts Christmas dinner?

Wizard chess: Harry left the feast with his own set, having learned on pieces borrowed from Seamus that didn't trust him and kept shouting advice.

What hat does Snape get from a cracker at Christmas lunch in Prisoner of Azkaban?

A vulture-topped witch's hat, echoing the outfit a Boggart-Snape had been dressed in that term; Dumbledore promptly swapped his own hat for it.

What dessert follows the roast turkey at Harry's first Hogwarts Christmas dinner?

Flaming puddings followed the turkey, and Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver Sickle baked into his slice.

What does Dobby give Harry for Christmas in Goblet of Fire?

Handmade odd socks: one patterned with broomsticks, the other with Snitches; to return the favour, Harry handed over an old mustard-yellow pair of his own.

What colour is the jumper Mrs Weasley knits Ron every Christmas?

Maroon: 'I hate maroon,' Ron moans as he pulls it on, while the twins cheerfully call theirs 'lovely and warm'.

Who is left without a Weasley jumper at the Burrow's Christmas lunch in Half-Blood Prince?

Fleur Delacour: Mrs Weasley, cool on her engagement to Bill, had not wanted to waste a jumper on her, and only warmed to her after Fleur stood by him when he was scarred.

What colour is the Weasley jumper Harry receives in his first year?

Emerald green: Mrs Weasley knitted it after Ron told her Harry didn't expect any presents, and sent a box of home-made fudge with it.

Why does Professor Trelawney hesitate to sit down to Christmas lunch in Prisoner of Azkaban?

She would make thirteen diners, and she warned that when thirteen dine together the first to rise is the first to die; Harry and Ron later got up at the same moment.

Who turned out to be the anonymous sender of the Firebolt Harry got for Christmas in his third year?

Sirius Black had Crookshanks carry the order to the owl office and paid from his own Gringotts vault, as his letter at the end of term revealed.

What did Hermione do about Harry's anonymous Firebolt that left him and Ron furious?

Reported it to a teacher: Hermione told Professor McGonagall, who confiscated the broom so that Flitwick and Madam Hooch could strip it down and test it for jinxes.

What does Cedric tell Harry to do with his golden egg as the ball ends in Goblet of Fire?

Take a bath with it: Cedric was repaying Harry's warning about the dragons, and told him how to get into the prefects' bathroom to try it.

The Christmas dance Hogwarts holds in Harry's fourth year is a tradition of which event?

The Triwizard Tournament: McGonagall called the ball a traditional part of it, open to fourth-years and above, so third-year Ginny could go only because an older student invited her.

Who does Harry take to the dance after Cho Chang turns him down?

Parvati Patil said yes on the spot and lined up her twin Padma for Ron, after Lavender Brown turned out to be going with Seamus.

Who is Hermione's date at the Christmas dance in Goblet of Fire?

Viktor Krum, Durmstrang's Quidditch star, took Hermione to the ball, and a jealous Ron accused her of fraternising with the enemy.

Who does Ginny go to the Goblet of Fire dance with?

Neville Longbottom had asked Ginny after Hermione turned him down, so when Ron offered her to Harry as a partner she had to say she was taken.

What does Ron cut off his second-hand dress robes with a Severing Charm before the ball?

The lace collar and cuffs came off, but the robes still looked so much like a dress that his partner was dismayed to be seen with him.

Which real musicians made up the Weird Sisters in the Goblet of Fire film?

Members of Pulp and Radiohead: Pulp's Jarvis Cocker fronted the band as Myron Wagtail and wrote its songs, with Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway alongside him.

Why does the Goblet of Fire film never name the band playing at its ball?

A Canadian folk group sued: Winnipeg's Wyrd Sisters took Warner Bros. to court over the name, and though a judge refused to block the film, its band goes unnamed.

How was the Great Hall dressed for the dance in the Goblet of Fire film?

As an ice palace, though its ice was faked in resin, and one of the sculptures was modelled on the Brighton Pavilion.

At which university was McGonagall's dance lesson in the Goblet of Fire film shot?

Oxford: the lesson was shot in the university's 15th-century Divinity School, so Ron learns to dance in the very room that plays the hospital wing in earlier films.

How does Dobby decorate the Room of Requirement for Christmas in Order of the Phoenix?

Baubles showing Harry's face, each reading 'HAVE A VERY HARRY CHRISTMAS!', hung from the ceiling until Harry hurriedly pulled them down before the rest of the DA arrived.

What does Harry joke the mistletoe is probably full of, just before he and Cho kiss?

Nargles: a friend had warned him earlier that mistletoe is often infested with them, and when Cho asks what they are, Harry admits he has no idea.

Where does Harry spend Christmas in his fifth year, instead of the Burrow as planned?

Grimmauld Place, number twelve, headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, hosted Harry and the Weasleys that Christmas, and Hermione joined them instead of skiing with her parents.

Which attack does Harry witness in a dream just before Christmas in Order of the Phoenix?

A snake biting Arthur Weasley: Harry saw it through the snake's own eyes, which got Mr Weasley found in time and led Dumbledore to order Occlumency lessons.

What parting gift from his godfather, after their fifth-year Christmas, does Harry open only once the giver is dead?

A two-way mirror: Harry took the wrapped package back to school but vowed not to use it, afraid of drawing his godfather into danger, and found it again only while packing at the end of the year.

Who does Harry take to Slughorn's Christmas party in his sixth year?

Luna Lovegood went with Harry as a friend; she wore spangled silver robes and told Slughorn's guests about the Rotfang Conspiracy.

Who does Hermione bring to Slughorn's party purely to annoy Ron?

Cormac McLaggen: Hermione picked him because she knew it would annoy Ron most, then spent the party dodging him and the mistletoe.

Which unusual guest does Harry meet at Slughorn's Christmas party in Half-Blood Prince?

A vampire named Sanguini came with the author Eldred Worple, who wanted to write Harry's biography.

Who gatecrashes Slughorn's party and is dragged in by Filch?

Draco Malfoy admitted he had not been invited, Slughorn let him stay anyway, and Snape then led him off for a private talk that Harry followed and overheard.

What Christmas gift does Lavender Brown give Ron in their sixth year?

A sweetheart necklace: a heavy gold chain reading 'My Sweetheart', which Ron showed Harry in horror on Christmas morning at the Burrow.

Which Christmas scene at the Burrow was invented for the Half-Blood Prince film?

The house is set ablaze: Bellatrix Lestrange and Fenrir Greyback draw Harry out into the marsh and ring the Burrow with fire, a raid the book never has.

Where do Harry and Hermione go on the night before Christmas in Deathly Hallows?

Godric's Hollow: neither realised what night it was until a carol started up in the church beside the graveyard where James and Lily are buried.

Who is really inside Bathilda Bagshot's body when she meets Harry in his parents' village?

Nagini: the snake had been hidden inside the dead historian's body as a trap, and poured out of her neck once she had Harry alone upstairs.

What verse is on James and Lily's gravestone?

'The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death': Harry first takes it for a Death Eater idea, until Hermione explains it means living on beyond death.

How did J.K. Rowling reveal the title of Deathly Hallows in December 2006?

A hangman puzzle on her website: fans guessed the title letter by letter that December, while Rowling was still writing the book and had yet to hand it in.

Where is the Warner Bros. Studio Tour, which dresses the Great Hall for Christmas each winter, located?

The studios were a wartime de Havilland aircraft factory before GoldenEye moved in.

Unlike the book's Christmas Day, when does the Goblet of Fire film hold its dance?

Christmas Eve: the film moves the ball a day earlier, while in the book Hermione leaves a Christmas Day snowball fight three hours early to get ready for it.

Read backwards, the mirror Harry finds at his first Hogwarts Christmas claims to show 'not your face but your' what?

Heart's desire: the frame reads 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi', the sentence written backwards with the spaces moved, and in the glass Harry sees his lost family.

Dumbledore warns Harry that the mirror he found over Christmas gives neither knowledge nor what?

Truth: Dumbledore warns that the mirror gives neither, and that men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen.

What sits on top of the Weasleys' Christmas tree in Half-Blood Prince, dressed as an angel?

A Stunned garden gnome: it had bitten Fred on the ankle, so it was painted gold, stuffed into a tiny tutu and given glued-on wings.

Which Minister for Magic turns up at the Burrow on Christmas Day in Half-Blood Prince?

Rufus Scrimgeour used Percy's visit as cover to ask Harry to be seen backing the Ministry; Harry refused and agreed he was 'Dumbledore's man through and through'.

Which former Hogwarts teacher is a long-term patient at St Mungo's when Harry visits at Christmas in Order of the Phoenix?

Gilderoy Lockhart, his memory still gone, greeted them by offering autographs and boasting that he could do joined-up writing now.

Who took over from John Williams to score the Goblet of Fire film, including its ballroom waltz?

Patrick Doyle got the job because he had scored two earlier films for director Mike Newell, while Williams was tied up with four other 2005 releases.

What colour is Hermione's ball gown in the Goblet of Fire film, changed from periwinkle blue on the page?

Pink: the film gave Hermione the colour that Harry's own partner wears in the book, where she turns up in robes of shocking pink.