How Are You Going To Celebrate Your 40th Birthday?

by Mandy Weckford

If your 40th birthday is on the horizon, it’s time to start thinking about how you want to celebrate it. Don’t feel you’ve got to do something you don’t really want to do, such as throw a huge party if parties are not your thing. However, do make sure you mark the occasion properly. It’s an important milestone in your life and it’s better to embrace it than ignore it. So many of my friends and family have turned 40 in the past ten years that, if you’re wondering what to do for your fortieth, I feel I’m in a good position to offer you some suggestions.

For his 40th, my friend Tim hired a riverboat to cruise along the Thames, with about 100 of us on it. There was an excellent buffet and live music to dance to afterwards. The atmosphere was very special - and it felt so decadent, drinking champagne as we sailed past the Houses of Parliament! It can’t have been cheap but it was a wonderful experience.

My sister Laura’s birthday is in the summer and, for her 40th, we (that is, about twenty of us family and about another twenty friends) went to the beach. It was sunny and warm but not too hot and we had a lovely day swimming, chatting, lounging, collecting shells, playing cricket on the sand, eating, drinking and being merry.

Born in 1963, my friend David threw a 60s theme party for his 40th birthday. We all wore groovy costumes - flares, hippy shades, kaftans, garlands, mini-skirts, peacenik sandals, headbands - and had a high old time bopping away to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Small Faces. He had videos of some TV shows from the Sixties, which we watched when we flagged, and 1960s party food, including a mean prawn cocktail.

Having just been through a messy divorce when she turned 40, my friend Deborah decided she needed pampering. Her sister, another friend and I spent a marvellous day with her at her health club, having a swim, being massaged, having manicures and pedicures, chatting in the sauna and having our hair done. After that, we went out for a civilised dinner and felt like film stars!

The idea of giving a dinner party for twenty guests fills me with horror but my friend Rob did this in the ideal way: he hired a professional chef to come to his house and cook for us, in front of us. Rob is a real foodie and having all this sumptuous fare rustled up in his very own kitchen was a dream come true.

Because my friend Mark loves magic, for his 40th birthday party, his partner booked a magician. I have to admit, I was a bit sceptical about this but the conjuror turned out to be a true pro, a member of The Magic Circle and capable of doing absolutely anything, it seemed. The highlight for me was when he wrapped an elastic band around a pack of cards and flung it at the ceiling. The pack came down but one card remained stuck to the ceiling: the card Mark had chosen!

Before long I’m going to be forty myself and I’ve decided to go to New York, with my husband, for my birthday. I have never been there but I just get the feeling I want to be in the Big Apple to greet the big four oh. I want to see all the sights, check out the art galleries, watch a show on Broadway, do some shopping and soak up some of the energy of that great city. This seems a pretty cool start to my fifth decade.

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To find further ideas and advice to do with 40th birthday parties, celebrations & presents, check out our 40th birthday website.