My SO is turning 40 next month and I want to plan a Party for him. I was thinking a Vegas theme with an Elvis Impersonator singing telegram? I don’t think he would enjoy a stripper with all his friends and their wives there so I’m trying to come up with some other ideas to make it a memorable party for all.
Would love to hear some doper ideas 
Rent some electric wheelchairs and stage a wheelchair race. It’s got the whole geezer thing going, it’s entertaining, and you might make some money on the gambling end of it!
The ease/success of this idea depends on whether SO is a packrat or the child of packrat.
A friend of mine pulled together a superb 30th for yet another friend with the help of his mom. She hung up his (very) early art projects and a report card or two, displayed team photos and sports trophies. A home video from when he was about 12 looped on a TV in the corner with a soundtrack comprised of what have been some of his favorite songs through the years. His yearbooks were available for browsing as well.
Some of the things were not authentically his. The Star Wars poster was not his, but the action figures were. Pictures of some of his more memorable cars were printed from the web.
There were relatives, school friends, work friends, and all of us learned things we hadn’t known about him before. Everybody had a great time, especially the guest of honor.
Lots of black balloons and black crepe paper for decorations.
A “survival kit”, the items to be handed to him individually, in public. This kit should contain various creams and lotions, Viagra, eye-glasses, toupee’, etc., etc.
Parties like this can be fun!
Thanks! Yes, I was thinking of having some grab bags for everyone and also playiing a game where everyone has to say something about my SO or something along those lines. I like the black crepe paper idea too!
Shared memories can be a blast; the cheesier the better. Low humor works every time, particularly when everybody is laughing at themselves. (Hey, laughing at what a happy dork you used to be is half the fun of aging.) As corny as it is, gathering in homage to past cliches–in dress, music, buzzwords, etc.–can be a hoot.
Blasts from the past: all attendees must come bearing their most dated CDs, wearing the worst/typical dress that was soooooo cool back then–and any photographic evidence they might contribute of their own, or better yet, your SO’s passage through sillyness, would contribute to the mayhem. It’s flat out impossible to resist shared insanity.
Don’t stop with the black crepe paper. Go all Martha Stewart and accessorize the party with Depends, Enzyte, Prepartion H, Metamucil, denture cleaners, AARP ads, etc.
I would like to state that I have always felt the black-theme/ over the hill theme/ geezer theme is incredibly tacky. If my husband did this for me, I would not be happy.
Why not decorate everthing with stuff in a theme of the year your SO graduated from High School. (or whatever the happiest adolescent year was.) Retro music, movies, year books, clothing ( which would be fun as all that stuff is at the Salvation Army now)
Play a game of trivial pursuit, but with questions picked from that time period
( music, movies, world events.) Ask all the guests to come up with five questions from something they’ve done with her in the past. If they Stump the Chump (Your SO) they get a boobie prize. If your SO gets them all right, she gets a present or something.
It is incredibly tacky. Taken to extremes–and why bother otherwise?–it can be funny, if shared. But you raise a good point: gonzo nostalgia doesn’t neccessarily blend well with portents of impending decrepitude.
Though when I turned 40 the gag Depends came in handy, sopping up the flow from a spilled pitcher of margaritas.
Talk about whistling in the graveyard…
I hope the OP’s husband actually LIKES birthdays, and WANTS his birthday turned into a spectacle.
My husband LOVES his birthdays, and starts talking with great excitement weeks in advance. I hate birthdays, and wish I could ignore mine (but it’s Christmas Eve and people tend to remember it). But, he thinks anything involving jokes about getting older, etc., are in horrible taste. So at least we agree there. When I turned 30, mom sent a singing/dancing ‘policeman’ to my place of employment, and all I can remember is my utter panic, and the adrenaline it took hours to come down from, when a cop came in asking for me. I mean, I’d turned in that pot I found! They couldn’t arrest me for it! I’d kept the terms given me when I’d been deferred from 90 days of jail, when I was involved with Operation Rescue, so they couldn’t be taking me in for that!! Mom meant well, but the adrenaline and fear was still not very much fun, and sadly what I remember most of all. (And I was pregnant at the time and worried the adrenaline would hurt the baby.)
My father hates birthdays and any other holidays. When he turned 40, my mom bought a billboard in our little hometown with the ‘Lordie, Lordie, look who’s 40’ theme, and a picture of him as a little boy, and he was just viciously angry with her for it. Biiiig backfire. Big.
So, while I can’t offer idea of that TO do, I can just try to make sure that this will be a success rather than a catastrophe by having the OP make sure she’s tooling this to her husband’s personality and not to her own idea of what should be done at turning 40.
Ask all your guests to talk really loud to him for the first 1/2 hour or so. Then someone can give him one of those “hearing horns” like geezers from yesteryear used to use.
If you’re going to give him a hard time about being 40, I don’t think he’ll care if the gags are slightly tacky or tasteless. Just don’t overdo it.
Yes Chotii, he’s not a huge Birthday Party person, but I had a 30th Party for him and it turned out great. The reason I was thinking the sort of “Vegas” theme is because we might be moving there in the next few months and a friend of mine has all kinds of decorations and casino games I can borrow. I think I can get away with going to Spencer gifts to find some interesting things for the gift bags and they have Over The Hill type gifts too.
My SO is pretty mellow and laid back and I’m only inviting friends that he’s comfortable partying with, so there’s no pressure, just hopefully a really good time.
Go to the local funeral home and buy one of those “memorial books” that people sign during visitation. I have done this for several friend’s birthdays and it was always a great hit! (Around $15).
If you want to go all out, take Polaroid or digital shots of all the guests as they arrive. Paste them in the book with double faced tape and have the guests write something next to their photos.
There’s a spot in most of those books that has the birth date and the date they were laid to rest.
Wicked fun!