Ideas for Husband's 50Th Birthday

If you are serving alcohol-then do at least light hordoerves-and definitely catered. If not, then you can do just the cake and punch. Also-if you have alcohol you don't need to worry as much about activites -its always fun to have a drink with other adults LOL! Again, if not you may want to do an activity or 2. Can't give advice there because have never been to and adult party with activities. Maybe you can tweak shower activites?

What about suggesting a charity donation instead of gifts and at my friends 50th they had a quiz where all the questions were about music & trivia from the 70's & 80's with a small gift for the winners.

Dear L.,

What you serve depends on the time of day and duration of your party. If you want to keep it simple or are on a budget I would suggest cold cut platters with mini breads, buns, bagels, assorted condiments, veggie platters w/dip, bowls of chips/dip and nuts. Beverages of choice, coffee and cake.

If you can afford to have it catered, go for it, less work and stress for you.

If you can have a DJ that’s always fun, they can play the music that's been popular in your husband’s life. If not you could play your own CD's or put someone in charge of music.

I'm not much on games for 50th birthdays; people generally enjoy catching up and visiting. You might create a collage of photos of your husband starting from birth to now and significant occasions in his life. We did a DVD with lots of photos set to favorite music.

I would also make or have made a party favor as a memento of his day. We did M&M’s with the number 50 on one side and a photo on the other side (yes they can do that), and put them in plastic containers. There are lots of good ideas for party favors.

Hope you have a wonderful time!

PRESENTS! Let your friends bring cards and/or presents...some 50th presents are hilarious and lots of people give gift cards to nice resturants...it's his big day!

Blessings….

It all depends on what time of the day you are having the gathering. If it is at meal time (lunch or dinner) than you need to serve some kind of meal. I like finger foods at these kind of parties, because your guests can move around and chat while eating and holding a small plate. Finger foods will be less costly and more fun. I always love finger foods. They can also be healthy. Veggie dips, healthy mini wraps, mini quiches, fruit pieces dipped in chocolate (gotta have chocolate), fruit kabobs, cheese and olive platter, and deviled eggs ( a real treat when I am at a party). I few years ago I had my annual New Years Eve Party and I cooked for days preparing. We had a ton of kids so I made a lot of pigs in a blanket and a chicken finger platter with different dips for the kids. I did this for two reasons: to satisfy the children with familiar choices and to fill them up so they wouldn't fill their plates with my veal parmigiana and not even eat it. Guess what? The adults loved the kids menu so much that we now only serve finger foods on New Years Eve- lots of little mini courses that we just keep coming!

However, if you feel your crowd is a more of a sit down and chat kind of group then you should serve a sit down meal.

If the party is not during a meal time, then you can definitely just stick with desserts and snacks, just make sure you write on the invitation whether a meal is being served so your guests will not come ready for a 5 course dinner.

As far as gifts go, it's his 50th, let them bring presents. We often chip in so the cost is not too large. Gifts are fun! If you are really against the idea then state that on the card as well. You can always ask them to make a donation to a special charity that means something to you and your husband, that is always met with respect and generosity.

Hope that was helpful! My husbands 50th is next August- now you have me thinking...

J. B.

I like the ideas already given. I'll just add that when my husband turned fifty, I went down to the newspaper office (remember newspapers?) and purchased a little ad announcing his milestone and using an old photo of him as a kid. He liked it... eventually. His colleagues at his office saw it first and had to point it out to him!

If you could have your party catered, it could save you some hassle. But you have to have a caterer you can really depend on.

LOVE the trivia idea - so fun!
I typically put on the invitation, "Your presence is the best present."
and if they bring a gift, so be it, they may really, really want to honor him that way if they are gift giver. If they don't, no big deal.
It could also be fun to have a generational dance off. Pick one or two key dance moves from each decade and have the group join in when they know the dance and remove themselves when they don't, etc.

I too was going to suggest a chairty donation in lieu of presents. Just put it on the invite with the option of 2 charities that your husband likes or has some sort of interest in...like if he enjoys running you could suggest American Heart Association or something.

If the space you have is like a hall or something a DJ would be nice. You could possibly even get one of your kids friends to do it, I'm sure they know someone (if they're teenagers that is, if your kids are younger I guess not, but still looking into a DJ is a good idea)

I also vote for catering it. If it's a big party and you want people to hang out and socialize, then I'd go for a bar and catering. Have fun!

Next Sat I am hosting my husbands 30th bday party and we are "roasting" him and I think its going to be fantastic. I had college friends that couldn't make it create videos, his friends have prepared funny speeches and we will be showing clips from his favorite funny movies. I got a DJ to handle all the A/V stuff and one of our favorite local restaurants has a hall (old church) right behind them that they use and cater for events! Good luck!