40th Birthday Ideas

Surprise Party

If you are planning a fortieth birthday celebration for a loved one instead of yourself, consider planning a surprise party with all of the birthday girl or boy's best friends, co-workers and family members. Although it might seem like a television cliché, most people have never actually had their very own surprise party. Throwing a surprise birthday party is fun for everyone involved but can be a lot of work for the planner.

First, choose a good location. You can host the birthday party at your house if you want to invite a ton of guests, but then you will be responsible for decorating, providing food and drink and choosing music. If you only want to invite the celebrant's closest friends and family members, plan a surprise birthday party dinner in a nice restaurant. Planning a surprise party in a restaurant is easier for the planner and easier to keep hidden from the birthday celebrant.

Choose a guest list and make sure that everyone on the list absolutely understands that the party is a surprise so that they don't blab. Then make a reservation for a big enough table at your restaurant of choice. Have all of the guests show up fifteen minutes before the birthday person. Make sure that they all understand that they need to arrive exactly on time for the surprise to work. Have an accomplice keep the birthday celebrant busy until dinner time, then have the accomplice bring the celebrant to the dinner, perhaps just expecting a quiet evening for two. The celebrant will be surprised and delighted to see all of her friends remembered her.

Try Something New

At 40, you may feel like you have already seen and done it all. That's ridiculous! There are probably a ton of things you have never tried before. If you have a career or a family to take care of, it can get easy to settle into a routine. Mix things up for your 40th birthday by planning some fun new activity you have never tried before. If this sounds frivolous to you, choose to learn a skill you have always wanted.

Sign yourself up for some foreign language classes or a Thai cooking class. If you're a daredevil, book a skydiving adventure for you and your best friend or get your scuba diving certification. If you are the type of person who is constantly picking up new hobbies, try out something that is totally out of character for you. If you love sports, for instance, sign yourself up for a ceramics class. If you are really into your book club, take salsa dancing. You'll get to meet new people, and hey, who knows, maybe you will discover a hidden talent.

This birthday celebration is especially ideal for people who are new in town or freshly divorced and want something fun that they can do on their own. If you don't have a lot of spare time to celebrate your birthday, start with something small like trying a new cuisine for dinner.

Take a Trip

If you really want to do something fun and indulgent then take a trip! If you are in a committed relationship, take some time off of work and go on a romantic getaway. This could be to a secluded tropical beach or a busy ski resort, depending upon your own preferences.

Another type of fun trip to consider for your 40th birthday is a buddy trip. Organize a vacation with all of your best friends. Rent a beach house somewhere or book a few hotel rooms and act like you are on spring break. Since a trip is a significant expense for most people and needs to be planned in advance, think about combining your celebration with your friends' birthdays and making the whole trip be about everybody.

If you've always been the adventurous type, visit some exotic place you have always wanted to see. You could scale Cambodia's Angkor Wat or ride a horse across Peru!

Plan a Romantic Evening With Someone Special

Maybe you already know that your soon to be over-the-hill loved one would be mortified and angry with a surprise party. Or perhaps money is especially tight this year or you and your friends are already booked to the gills with work obligations and child care stuff. Even if you are broke and overworked, you can still plan a small, quiet birthday celebration for your birthday guy or gal.

Everybody enjoys a nice, romantic meal that they did not have to prepare, pay for or clean up after themselves. Hire a babysitter, put on your best clothes and take your birthday celebrant out to her favorite restaurant. The two of you can have a peaceful, quiet meal that will show your loved one that you appreciate her. If you want to make the birthday night extra special, combine dinner with a trip to the theater or to some event your partner has been wanting to attend. Sometimes, for busy parents and career hounds, a quiet, peaceful night seems as out of reach as an exotic vacation.