Pick a Hobby or Interest
If your friend isn't young enough, or funny enough, to appreciate an "over the hill" party anymore, I recommend going with a kinder approach. In this case, design the party around activities or a theme that the guest of honor enjoys. For example if you're throwing a party for your wife and she loves gardening, make that your theme. You could suggest that guests bring little things to help with the garden such as seed packets or fertilizer spikes. Ask guests to dress in gardening clothes with big straw hats. Create acake with a profusion of real or sugar flowers on top. Serve snacks in clay pots (after covering the hole in the bottom with some foil).
Or, if your husband is interested in auto racing create a race themed party. Organize a road rally to start the party. You can find information on organizing a road rally at Road Rally Central. Have all your guests meet at your home. Then provide them with directions to lead them to a final destination in a park for a picnic. Serve the picnic on black and white checkered tablecloths. Hang a banner over your picnic table that reads "The Finish Line."
Celebrate the Best of Times
Another variation on the kinder approach is hosting a party that recreates the best times of the birthday boy's youth. Create a pictorial timeline of the birthday boy's life as part of your decor. Invite friends from the guest of honor's past and organize a small "this is your life" presentation. Ask guests to bring their fondest or funniest memory of the birthday boy to be read during a warm and humorous toast.
Another popular approach is to create a historic theme for a milestone party. You can either use the decade when the birthday boy was born, or the decade in which he was a teenager. For example, someone turning 50 this year was born in 1954. You could host a fabulous fifties party celebrating his year of birth or a psychedelic sixties party for the years he was a growing teen.
A twist on a decade-based theme party is to create a theme party around the decade the guest of honor is now entering. If the birthday milestone is age 40, then host a forties big band theme party.
If you choose this decade format for your party, create the mood with the music, clothes and even popular children's games from the period. There are many props you can use such as posters of movie stars from the decade, advertising posters or vintage home appliances or furniture from that period.
Other Details
Gifts - You never want to ask your guests to bring a gift to a party. That should be left to their own discretion. But as you can see, I've given inexpensive, theme-related, gag gift suggestions if they're looking for ideas. Another inexpensive gift suggestion in keeping with the milestone theme, is to ask each guest to bring a quantity of items equaling the birth age. For a 30-year-old party you would ask each guest to bring 30 of a single item. It could be pennies, sticks of gum, balloons, hard candies, etc.
Beverages - If you would like to be a little extravagant, serve vintage wines, champagnes and ports from the decade the birthday girl was born.
Memory Book - Create a memory book of the party. Include pictures of the celebration, copies of any toasts or roasts that were given, and ask all guests to sign the book with a personalized birthday message.
