If you’re looking to celebrate a 75th birthday with a bang, then we’ve got a few ideas.

Fun Experience Gifts

Let’s face it. By the time you get to 75, you’ve probably got as much ’stuff’ as you need. So why not gift some ‘doing’ to the birthday boy / girl. As we did, you could celebrate with a special meal in a posh restaurant. Or why not try something a little more adventurous, maybe a hot air balloon trip or paragliding?

This is your life DVD

It’s really easy to scan old photographs into your PC now, so why not use images from the honoree’s past to create a ‘This is your Life’ DVD. Perhaps the house where they were born, images of their parents, holiday snapshots from their childhood. Set the images against a background of appropriate music and you’ll create a photo montage to delight, bringing smiles and maybe tears too.

Platinum Party

Platinum is the metal relating to 75th celebrations, so why not theme your party with silver cups, plates and banners. Alternatively ask the guests to wear an item of silver clothing, or bring silver wrapped gifts, perhaps a pewter coloured instant photo guest book?

Instant Photo Guest Book

As with an birthday celebration or special event, an instant photo guest book makes a fantastic gift. Combining the fun and spontanaeity of instant photos alongside heartfelt messages from the party guests, an Adesso album creates a keepsake which will be treasured forever.

So, if like me, you’ve decided to embrace the World Cup by throwing a World Cup Party, here’s a few ideas for you.

Creating the right environment with a big TV

To really recreate that ‘bar-full of people’ atmosphere, you need a big TV or even better an overhead projector that can be linked to your TV. This particular one is HD ready, so it should give a great picture for those all-important goals.

Party Decorations

As with the food, you have a couple of clear options here.  Firstly go down the patrriotic 1966 replay route, supporting England all the way (can you guess how many times the 1966 England win will be mentioned within the opening match commentary.  My guess is 6).  To go with this theme you could consider St Georges Cross bunting, England flags and lots of red, white and blue plates, cups and napkins.

Or go for an African vibe, with lots of potted plants giving the impression of tropical forest and lots of green coloured plates etc.

Food

Again, you have a few choices here.  You could go for traditional football fare, with pork pies, burgers & hotdogs immediately springing to mind.  Or for something a bit more upmarket you could try traditional English grub, like mini fish and chips, or little Yorkshire puddings stuffed with roast beef (Yum!)

As a complete alternative why not try some South African themed food for a great talking point?  Rainbow Nation has some great recipes, including  frikkadels (hamburgers), klappertert (coconut pie) and bobotie (south african shepherds pies).

Drinks

For me, if it’s football, it’s got to be either lager or beer, with good old grufty ale being a favourite in our house.  Or why not try making that party favourite, Punch?  We like a version containing Southern Comfort, lemonade, orange juice, lemon juice and sugar to taste – with the obligatory cherries, orange and lemon slices on top.

Activities

If watching the match and the accompanying banter aren’t enough for you, you could consider face-painting with diffferent country flags.  Or a good old-fashioned sweepstake will add to the excitement – first to score a goal, which minute, final score etc.

Hopefully that will have given you some ideas to make your World Cup party go with a bang – don’t forget your instant photo guest book to record the fun though!

Birthday Girl

Even if you don’t do birthday parties, I think it’s written in stone somewhere that you have to have a 1st Birthday Party for your precious little one. That doesn’t necessarily mean an all singing, all dancing magic show / cake fest but could just be close friends and family over for afternoon tea.

We’ve had both types, but there are some common elements:

Balloons

A childrens party isn’t a childrens party without balloons.  Hours and hours of entertainment way after the party is over, it’s worth spending a little more on quality latex balloons which won’t pop so easily, or even going for foil balloons.  They can be used for numerous games, rubbed and stuck onto childrens heads or just bobbed around in the air.  As always with balloons, if any pop make sure you dispose of the remnants quickly to avoid a choking hazard.

Cake

No matter what your thoughts are on healthy eating, you’ve got to have a cake for a 1st birthday party.  One bonus is that your child is too young to demand a ‘character’ cake, so instead hire or buy a number 1 tin to bake your cake, or simply provide a stack of cute cupcakes which are much more child friendly to handle.

Guests & Venue

Who you invite is completely up to you, but given that your little one is just a year old and probably easily overwhelmed it’s worth giving this some careful consideration.  We’ve had a great 1st Birthday party in our garden (June birthday) as there was lots of space on the decking for a table and chairs, with room on the grass for littl’uns to play. 

For our daughters combined naming ceremony and birthday in November we hired a small church hall which had a nice spacious room for playing and joined kitchen / dining area.  This cost just £20 for the afternoon, but was really worth it because any spills could just be wiped up easily and there was lots of room for everyone to have their own space and no furniture for little ones to trip over.

Timing

One critical element is what time of day to have the party.  Most 1 year olds will still have at least one nap during the day, so plan the party to start just after a nap, rather than keeping an overtired child up (and then overstimulating them…not a good combo).  If you’re inviting guests, specify a start and finish time so that it doesn’t drag on.

Entertainment

Luckily one year olds don’t need much entertainment aside from balloons and some music.  There are some great kids music CD’s available or select a favourite playlist from your MP3 player.  Lastly, don’t forget to take lots of pictures and consider having a photo guest book. You can ask guests to write a 1st birthday message for your little one and maybe some advice for growing up, or a little story about something you’ve shared during their first year. Whatever you write, it will make a fantastic keepsake.

An at home wine tasting is easy to arrange and requires very little in the way of  party planning. You’ll need wine but if you ask guests to bring a bottle of their favourite vino that will keep costs down. Aside from that you just need some disposable plastic wine glasses, plenty of snacks and space in the fridge to chill any white or sparkling wines.

Prepare your wine stations by wine type – one for red, one for white and one for dessert / sparkling. Set aside a couple of bottles for a game of ‘Guess the Grape’ later on. You can act as the Sommelier yourself, or enlist the help of a non-drinking buddy and let each guest sample any of the wines they choose. If they like a particular wine, offer them a full glass.

To play ‘Guess the Grape’, cover the labels of a few of each type of wine and hand guests a sheet of paper with spaces for them to write each answer. Guests should sniff and taste the wine and then make their guess as to which type or grape variety the wine is based upon. Having sampled each wine, they must write down the grape from which it was made, be it Chardonnay, Merlot or Shiraz. The winner takes home an unopened bottle as a prize…and maybe some paracetamol for their headache.

If you’re single, it can also be a drag.  You can’t get a decent meal without paying OTT prices, and you’ll be surrounded by couples who aren’t talking to each other because they’re ‘past all that’ now.

So why not get together with some like-minded friends and have an Anti-Valentines day party?  If you fancy a fabulously bitchy party, invite all your single girlfriends (or gay male friends ).   Like any ‘normal’ party you can have food, drink, music and games and I’ve made a few suggestions for each below:

Games

•  Buy a dartboard, bring along a pic of your worst ‘ex’ and then have fun by taking it in turns to spear them in the head, with double points for hitting both eyes, naturally.
• Alternatively, the childrens party game ‘Pin the tail on the donkey’ can have a whole new meaning as you attempt to pin whatever you want to a picture of your ex.  Or the Prime Minister, or George W, or whomever.

Food & Drink

• For this sort of party, it’s really got to be cocktails.  I particularly like the sound of A Lovers Tiff or perhaps a Valentines Dream.  Maybe even a Lovers twist? To be fair some of these sound disgusting, but you get the idea!
• Food wise, whatever is easy to stick in the oven and abosorb some alcohol.  Pizza is always a good bet, as are any sort of nacho’s / dips etc.

Music

As for music, it’s got to be uplifting and it’s got to be something you can sing along to.  No Bridget Jones style caterwauling in your PJ’s, more of the Gloria Gaynor / Abba-esque belting it out, loud and proud.  If you can borrow someones ‘Singstar’ all the better.

And of course it wouldn’t be a party without someone taking dodgy photos for ‘posterity’.  Just remember to get yourself a fabulous Photo Album to keep all those lovely pics in.

As usual if you have any ideas to share, please feel free to leave a comment or for more unique party ideas, tips and customer reviews of our wedding guest books and wedding guest book ideas, please visit our blog.