The Harry Potter movies feel like Christmas. There’s just something about the idea of a big movie packed with fantasy escapism that feels tailor-made for those long afternoons where nobody is at work and there’s a tree covered in LED bulbs flashing in the corner. But there has never been a bona fide Harry Potter Christmas special – we’ve just had a handful of scenes like those awful Weasley jumpers and the Yule Ball – and that’s a tragedy.
After all, the Harry Potter world is now enormous. The main Harry Potter cast has said goodbye, of course, but that doesn’t mean we can’t shine the spotlight on different Harry Potter characters. We spent so much time chasing Voldemort around during the Potter movies that we’ve still left so much of the Wizarding World unexplored.
With that in mind, we have a few ideas for how Christmas could let us dig deeper, while overdosing on festive joy of course. There are only so many times you can convince the family to watch all of the Harry Potter movies in order again, so a Christmas special would give you a Wizarding World festive fix. Here are some possible adventures.
The Marauders Get Merry
According to the established Harry Potter canon, Lupin and the rest of the Marauders started their final year at Hogwarts in 1977. Coincidentally – or perhaps not – that was a very significant year in that there was a full moon on Christmas Day. The one before that was in 1920, the one after was in 2015, and we won’t get another until 2034. They don’t come around very often.
We’ve never been able to spend much time with the likes of Lupin, Sirius Black, and James Potter on screen, but that could all change with a thrilling Christmas special set at that full moon Christmas. By then, the Marauders had already found a way to keep Lupin’s werewolf transformations hidden by way of the Whomping Willow and the Shrieking Shack, but we’re sure that they’d also want their friend to be able to celebrate Christmas as well.
This could be a great backdrop for a tense festive story, complete with horror elements. Hogwarts is always emptier at Christmas, but would it be empty enough to conceal Lupin amid the celebrations? We could also see Severus Snape sniffing around, as he always was, so the potential is there to head back in time and paint some different shades of these people in their teenage years. We think it could be truly great.
A Very Scorbus Christmas
Eventually, we’re going to get a Cursed Child release date, and we’re counting down the days. We’re also very keen for the Cursed Child movie to be a gay romance, bringing to the forefront the clear romantic feelings between Albus Severus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy. In the meantime, a Christmas special could set up that bond in advance.
It’s made very clear throughout the Cursed Child play that both Albus and Scorpius were less than happy with their parents and their home lives. But once they found each other and bonded at Hogwarts, they’d have the opportunity to stay at the castle for Christmas, spending those weeks with each other rather than at the homes they disliked so much. A festive romcom set in the Wizarding World? We’re sold.
All Was Well… at Christmas
We know there’s a Harry Potter TV series release date on the way, in which we’ll get a far more comprehensive adaptation of the original novels. But there’s very little exploration in those books of what happens in the months after Voldemort died. With the Death Eaters and other Harry Potter villains forced underground, the Wizarding World is at peace and filled with joy.
And let’s face it, there’s no better way to explore that atmosphere of peace and joy than at Christmas. A story set at the first post-Voldy Christmas could allow us to catch up with some of the minor characters from the Wizarding World to see how they mark the joyous occasion. And let’s be honest, we all want to explore Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley at Christmas, don’t we?
We Wish You a Merry Weasley
We bet Fred and George Weasley love Christmas. They seem like exactly the two lads you’d want at a party and we bet they’re great gift-givers. So we think the twins would also be great at the heart of a Christmas special, exploring their early years at Hogwarts in which they first started to make use of the Marauders Map.
The Weasley clan doesn’t always get together at Christmas, so it’s possible that Fred and George spent their first Hogwarts holiday season in the castle. They’d just swiped the map from Filch, giving them all of the secret passageways and hidden portions of the castle to explore.
We’d definitely love to see what sort of mischief they’d get up to and, frankly, new movies in the Potter franchise should start to focus on different characters. This is a huge world so let’s use it.
Harry’s First Christmas
We didn’t get a chance to spend a lot of time with James and Lily Potter in the movies. Of course, they died before the series began, but we didn’t get many flashbacks to their lives, other than brief blasts of what happened while they were at school. We never got to see the Potter family together before that fateful night in Godric’s Hollow.
A Christmas special could give us a poignant look at baby Harry’s first-ever holiday season. It would be a great way to get the Marauders together, coming together to celebrate with the Potters, while also fleshing out James and Lily a little more.
And of course, the whole thing has an undercurrent of horror and tragedy thanks to the prospect of Voldemort eventually having his eye on the family. This could be a great window into the history of the Potter franchise.
For more from the Wizarding World, find out about the best Harry Potter spells and learn why Emma Watson had her worst-ever birthday on the Harry Potter set. You can also find out if there’s any Potter on our list of the best movies ever made and look ahead to the Fantastic Beasts 4 release date. We still have our fingers crossed that it’ll happen.
The creator of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, has made a number of transphobic remarks on social media in recent years. If you’d like to learn more about transgender equality or lend your support, here are two charities we encourage you to visit: the National Center for Transgender Equality in the US, and Mermaids in the UK.