40th birthday party: ideas, themes and supplies to celebrate your party in style
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 with a bang! 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 waterfalls from the ceiling and decorate the walls with banners, balloons, and photos of the “birthday boy / girl” 40th birthday (current or growing years photos). For that extra touch, add a disco ball or two. Set up a table with 40th birthday plates, cups, and napkins and a large photo of the 40th birthday honoree as a centerpiece.
Topics:
A 40th birthday party can be celebrated as a family reunion or a group of friends. Make it a 40th birthday lunch or a special night. Just make sure you have plenty of room for colorful decor and room for games, dancing, and fun! Pick a disco theme for someone born in the 70s and have all of your guests dress accordingly. Host a clubbing contest and see who has the best John Travolta moves. Or maybe a little karaoke with hits from the ’70s. 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 ended up winning. If your 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 over it. Add in some large umbrellas and lawn chairs and you have your “beach.”
Games / Activities:
This is your Life
Do you remember the old TV show? It’s a great activity for a big birthday! This can be done verbally or as a PowerPoint presentation. Have various family members or guests act like people from the honoree’s past. Have each one, in turn, stand behind a wall and say something like, “I met you at the drinking fountain in 1st grade. I stole a kiss from you later at recess.” Have the guest of honor guess who it is. After he guesses correctly, have the actor or presenter tell that story from the person’s life. (An additional gift idea is to collect newspaper clippings or reviews from the week they were born and make a book.)
Can you guess?
Put several small items that relate to the birthday boy / girl in a brown paper bag (a favorite book, knitting needles, running shoes, measuring cup, if you like to cook, that is). Blindfold someone and give them one of the items in the bag. Give them a few seconds to guess what it is about. If they are not successful, they are out. Then, blindfold the next person and have them try to guess another object in the bag. The game ends when all items have been identified or only one person is left in the game.
“Party” gifts:
Send your guests home with a 40th anniversary candy bar with a personalized message from you. Help your special someone remember their first 40 years with a birthday party to remember!