40Th Birthday Celebration Ideas

Pot luck House party. White elephant gift exchange rather than gifts to you. Put on a favorite, old-school DVD and discuss it afterwards. Slumber party and breakfast the next morning.

Have a special dinner party at a fantastic restaurant. Go on a wine tasting event, go bowling, Top Golf, have a party at your house.

Whatever you choose.... If you invite people you pick up 100% of the costs involved.

Cosmic Bowling!

Its fun, if you have a place in your city.

For kids and adults.
Its different and casual.

The place in my city, they have party packages.

For mine, I found a bar that was having an 80's cover band, and a few close friends and I went and danced the night away to 80's music. It was really fun and pretty inexpensive - just the cover charge to get in and the cost of a few drinks (none of us drink much).

Not really family friendly, but fun with friends.

Reserve a group use camp site and make a weekend out of it.

-Reserve a room at a fun restaurant, invite all of your close friends & family. Have them bring a funny anecdote about you to share.

-Rent a limo & take a few pals/family on a wine tour for a few hours
ending w/dinner at a restaurant.

-Reserve a hall at a hotel, invite all of your friends/family. Pay for drinks
and dinner.

-Camp at the ocean w/all of your fam/friends.

Ask everyone to bring something creative. We've done this for both my husband's and my "zero" birthdays - we've suggested, and received the following: a funny or touching anecdote, a limerick, a poem, a collage of photos and little written comments/captions, etc. The absolute best ones have been song parodies - people took another popular song and wrote new words. It can be ANY song that is singable and everyone knows, so the easiest ones are things like "I've been working on the railroad" (which could turn into "I've been thinking 'bout A.", or "Oh Susanna" or "Take me out to the ballgame" - anything that's a standard or classic known to all. People handed out sheets of lyrics and everyone just sang along as best they could. For one of my birthdays, the group of ladies from the gym I go to actually practiced beforehand, but for all the others, the writer (or writer and spouse) just led the group. It was great because I just didn't know anything about it ahead of time, only that my husband had suggested it!

Another thing you can do if people are really creative and have the time to spend is to have everyone make a scrapbook page ahead of time, then you slide it into the clear sleeves of a purchased scrapbook. You could also have them do this when they arrive - but for your own sake, delegate this to someone else so you aren't coordinating it. You won't enjoy it if you have to do all the planning and if you have high expectations you need them to bring to reality for you. But we did this for my mother's birthday - my niece bought the scrapbook and some basic supplies, and then everyone brought photos and the little embellishments that related to what they had done with her (beach vacations, hiking trips, etc.). Everyone wrote a letter to her about why she is special and printed it out, then the letter and the photos and the captions went onto scrapbook pages which we all worked on together while she wasn't around. Then we presented her with the finished book, with a page or two-page spread for each person.

If everyone does it together at the party, it takes the pressure off the not-so-creative people because it's collaborative. And people can share their photos of you or places they've been with you, so it's fun and not competitive.

But this doesn't work with a pile of food and a full wet bar of beverages - too much going on! However, it gives you something great to hold on to, and it can be done in any climate with people of many ages if that's your family make-up.

My husband turned 40 last year and we had a 70's themed party. It was so fun, everyone dressed in tie dye and hippie and I ordered decorations from Oriental Trading. We had about 50 people at the house and almost everyone dressed up.