Party Planning and More…

When we’re children, we await each birthday with bated breath, gleefully anticipating cake, gifts, and party games. As adults, even though each birthday is special, there are a few that garner extra attention – our milestone birthdays. If an “oldster” in your life is approaching their 40th, 50th, or 60th birthday, why not celebrate with an “Over the Hill” birthday party theme? Depending on your party approach (and the personality of the celebrant), Over the Hill parties can be humorous, or they can wax sentimental. Whether you’re planning on laughing along with the guest of honor or paying tribute to the celebrant’s life, here are a few ideas to spring your Over the Hill birthday celebration into action:

Invitations

For a funny flair, invite your guests to help “push” the honoree on their downhill journey toward old age with invitations decorated with tombstones, vultures, dentures, or the Grim Reaper. You could even construct a mock obituary, commemorating the “end of youth” for the honoree. For a more serious tone, opt for an invitation with a classy design, and let your guests know the purpose of the event is to commemorate the life of the honoree. Along with the invitation, include a questionnaire for the attendee to complete. Questions can be funny or serious, such as:

• My favorite memory of the guest of honor is:
• Three words to describe the honoree are:
• The birthday girl touched my life when she:

Party Decorations

Black is where it’s at when you’re decorating for an Over the Hill party. Dark balloons, tablecloths, tableware, and streamers along with tombstones, vultures, and Grim Reaper decor will set the tone for your fun festivities. Tie balloons from canes and walkers, and serve chips in bedpans alongside dip in denture containers. Provide black armbands, gray wigs, glasses, and fake hearing aids for your guests.

Party Menu

For Over the Hill party fare, anything goes. A buffet-style set-up of your favorite finger foods, such as sandwiches, wings, pizza, cubed fruits and vegetables, and meat/cheese plates, will be a surefire hit with your guests. For added fun, include a few pureed or soft foods for the “oldster” and serve prune juice cocktails.

Sheet cakes can be decorated to mimic a tombstone, or topped with artificial dentures, “candy” canes, or clumps of dyed gray coconut.

Party Fun

Invite guests to share their questionnaire responses, and show a “this is your life” slideshow, complete with baby pictures and milestone photos from the honoree’s life. Tailor this sharing session to be funny or serious to match the tone of your event.

For outdoor parties, have a walker or cane race, allowing each participant to use only one leg while they dash to the finish line, or play shuffleboard, croquet, or bocce ball. Bingo, complete with oldster-themed “prizes”, makes for great indoor fun.

If your attendees are on the daring side, consider hosting a game of “Guess that Food,” where blindfolded guests attempt to guess the flavors of various pureed baby foods. (Fruit varieties will go over best!)

Party Favors

Sending guests home with a few tasty treats to commemorate your Over the Hill party will extend the fun of your event. Timeless party favors include cookies decorated with a “40” (or “50”), or candy with personalized wrappers. For favors with a humorous touch, opt for snack-sized bags of prunes, rolls of anti-acids, muscle ointment, reading glasses, coupons for incontinence products, or bags of M&M’s relabeled as “energy pills.”

Whether your Over the Hill birthday party is humorous or has a more serious tone, it’s important to be sensitive to the feelings of the honoree. While some “oldsters” may take jibes in stride, others may be more sensitive about being the object of the fun. With a little sensitivity and a lot of creativity, your 40th, 50th, or 60th birthday party will go off without a hitch!