40th birthday party:
A person’s 40th birthday is a time to look back…and look forward to an exciting new chapter! Celebrate someone’s 40th birthday in style! With the right planning, decorations, and activities, you can throw a 40th birthday party that your honoree will remember for the next 40 years.
Ideas:
Greet your birthday guests with everything that celebrates “40”. Have a 40th birthday banner to sign at the entrance. Hang 40th birthday swirls or cascades from the ceiling and decorate the walls with banners, balloons, and photos of the “birthday boy/girl’s” 40th birthday (current photos or photos of her growing up years). For an extra touch, add a disco ball or two. Lay out a table with 40th birthday plates, cups and napkins and a large photo of the 40th birthday honoree as a centerpiece.
Topics:
A party of 40 years can be celebrated as a family reunion or a group of friends. Make it a 40th birthday lunch or a special night out. Just make sure you have plenty of room for colorful décor and room for games, dancing, and fun! Choose a disco theme for someone born in the 70’s and have all your guests dress accordingly. Host a disco contest and see who has the best John Travolta moves. Or maybe a little karaoke to ’70s hits. Find a pair of platform shoes and do a three-legged run. Or a relay race: fill a bag with clothes from the ’70s and divide your guests into teams. Each person on a team has to run to the bag, put on all their clothes, take them off again, and run back and tag the next person. The first team to finish wins. If the 40th birthday falls in the dead of winter, you can plan an indoor beach party where everyone wears Hawaiian shirts, leis, and sunglasses. Spread a tarp over a large area of the floor and spread sand on it. Add some large umbrellas and lawn chairs and you have your “beach”.
Games/Activities:
This is your Life
Remember the old TV show? It’s a great activity for an important birthday. This can be done verbally or as a PowerPoint presentation. Have several family members or guests act as people from the honoree’s past. Have everyone, in turn, stand behind a wall and say something like, “I met you at the drinking fountain in first grade. I stole a kiss from you later at recess.” Have the guest of honor try to guess who she is. After you get it right, ask the actor or presenter to tell that story from the person’s life. (An additional gift idea is to compile newspaper clippings or articles from the week they were born and make a book.)
Can you guess?
Put several small items that relate to the birthday person in a brown paper bag (a favorite book, knitting needles, running shoes, a measuring cup, if they like to cook, for example). Blindfold a person and give them one of the items in the bag. Give them a few seconds to guess what the item is. If they don’t succeed, they’re out. Then blindfold the next person and have them try to guess another item in the bag. The game ends when all the items have been identified or there is only one person left in the game.
“Party” gifts:
Send your guests home with a 40th birthday candy bar with a personalized message from you! Help that special someone remember their first 40 years with a birthday party to remember!