Milestone Birthday Party

All birthdays are special, but some are more special than others. These are milestone birthdays. This can range from an 18th birthday to a 50th or even 60th. For adults these milestones can bring a person down as you feel the passing of time.

There are two ways to approach a milestone birthday party, kindly and supportive or humorously. No matter what approach you choose you want your friend to feel loved and cherished. You don't want to make them feel worse. Even if you choose the humorous approach don't go out of your way to belittle your friend and make sure the guests are not laughing at the guest of honors expense.

If you decide to take the humorous approach make sure your guest of honor has a sense of humor and will not take things the wrong way. You want to cheer him up and highlight the good things in their life and the positive side of aging.

The humorous approach to a milestone birthday party

The first major milestone birthday a person would celebrate would be their 30th. At this point a person is starting to settle down. By this time you should be married and starting a family or might be considering it.

This is the perfect age to host an "Over the hills" party and really the last time it would be appropriate to host a party of this type as 30 is hardly "over the hill". To host an "over the hills" party after 30 would be less appropriate.

When you host an "over the hills" birthday party you can ask guests to bring gifts that poke fun at getting old. You can also dress the guest of honor up in a way that makes them look much older. You can make them wear a grey wig and crooked false teeth and give them a walking stick.

You can take the theme a step further by hosting a mock funeral. You would ask guests to come wearing black cloths. You can ask a few guests to give a eulogy. You could write an obituary and make your friend read it to everybody.

You need to be careful with the funeral theme. Make sure the idea of a fake funeral will not bring back bad memories and that your friend has not just had a death in the family or of a close friend.

The kinder approach, celebrate the good times

If your friend is a little old or would take an "over the hills" party the wrong way you can go the kind and supportive way. Look back at the good times and a person's achievements are always a very uplifting theme.

Collect old photos of the guest of honor when they were young. If you can, get some baby photos. Try to get photos family and friends have of when you they were growing up and studying. Have the photos reprinted or copied, nobody wants to destroy somebody else's memories. Place the photos around the venue were people can see them as they mingle. If you find a lot of photos you can make a collage or photo album as a gift.