51 Fantastic 50th Birthday Party Ideas
Turning 50 is a milestone in any life and should be marked as such. Just as each person has their own interests and preferences, there are as many 50th birthday party ideas as there are reasons to celebrate, and they can make each party spectacular. By including the birthday persons favourite foods, colours, drinks, and activities, the celebration is sure to be a success and create many wonderful memories.
Best 50th Birthday Party Ideas
Brunch With Your Loved Ones
Share your 50th birthday by inviting your loved ones, friends and family, to a long brunch. This can be held at a restaurant you love or at home.
Go Wine Tasting
Take your favourite person, or a few of your favourite people, and go on a wine tasting. Many small wineries have them both in person and online, where the wine is sent to your home to try.
Try A Tasting Menu
Celebrate your 50th birthday by enjoying the many courses tasting menu at a fancy restaurant near you.
Pamper Yourself with Catered Meal at Home
Avoid going out and still pamper yourself with a beautiful meal by hiring a caterer to your home. Have a small family gathering or invite all your friends to celebrate your 50th with you.
1950s Theme Party
Celebrate turning 50 with the 50s! This is one of our fave 50th birthday ideas! Have everyone dress the part, decorate with things that were popular in the 1950s and enjoy the day.
Theme Party of the Year You Were Born
When picking a party theme consider the year you were born, or the decade you were born. Plan decorations, meals, and even drinks by the things that were most popular and that you enjoy.
Click here to see our top 30 adult party themes for a guaranteed good time!
Have a Formal 50th Birthday Dinner and Dance
Create an elegant and 50th birthday formal dinner for a special moment and celebrate the life that you have had so far, and the adventures yet to come.
Take a Class
Several classes are great 50th birthday party ideas including art classes of painting, glass blowing, flower arranging, as well as cooking classes and much more.
50th Birthday Spa Weekend
Go away for an entire weekend of pampering and relaxation to launch your next decade. Everyone can sign up for the top treatments, share a sauna, and enjoy a weekend stress free.
Go on a Food Tour
Choose restaurants or food trucks that you want to try and work through them with each course. Cocktails and appetizers in one place, the main meal in another, and dessert in another. Add as many courses as you want.
Go on a Retreat
Take yourself on a yoga retreat, meditation retreat, skiing retreat, writers retreat, or even a crafting retreat, either alone or with your closest friends. Immerse yourselves in things that you love.
Do A Fun Run Fundraiser
Benefit others while you celebrate your 50th with a fun run, donations can count as gifts and you can build a team for the most fun.
Throw a Dance Party
Another great 50th birthday party idea is to have a dance party and relive your clubbing days, or sleepovers with dancing in the living room.
Hot Air Balloon Ride
Spend your birthday in the sky with a hot air balloon ride. It’s sure to create memories that will last forever. Don’t forget to take your camera for the panoramic views that are inaccessible any other way.
Party Theme of You and Your Favourite Things
Throwing a party for your friend? Making your own party? Surround it with all the guest of honours favourite things. Table clothes in you most worn colour, flowers or balloons, let friends and family bring things that remind them of the birthday person.
Go Glamping
Spend time in the outdoors for your 50th birthday without missing the comforts of home, with a glamping trip. Tents are large with drapery for the soft touch, beds are high off the ground and extra soft, and electricity is provided. Have the most glamourous camping trip you can imagine.
Organize a Closet Makeover
Clean out that closet for a fresh start. Remove things that no longer suit you or don’t make you feel great, and organize it so each thing is easy to find, then add some timeless pieces you love. This 50th birthday party idea helps you enter the next decade with a new look and your friends can help select your top pieces.
See a Show You Always Wanted to See
If you have ever wanted to go to the opera, or a Broadway play, now is your chance. Enjoy a show you have been waiting for. This is the time to splurge and do things you have always wanted to do.
Volunteer With Your Besties
Gather your best friends and enjoy this unique 50th birthday party idea by volunteering for a cause that you like. You can spend time at an animal shelter, drop off toys to the local children’s hospital, serve meals at the soup kitchen or help fill orders at the local food bank or Christmas hamper location.
Rent a Movie Theatre
Treat yourself and your friends and family to a movie in a rented out movie theatre. Finally have the freedom to enjoy a movie how you want, talk through it, share jokes, or sit in silence until the film ends. Snacks and drinks from the movie theatre can’t be matched anywhere else.
50th Birthday Cocktail Party
Dress up and share cocktails with your loved ones at a cocktail party just for you. Hire a bartender to make specific drinks based on the birthday person, have them named after their friends or family, and share the time with the people who matter most.
Make a Bucket List with Friends
Gather your friends and make a bucket list together. You will have shared activities and personal ones, but you’ll learn a lot about each other while you do it and strengthen your bonds as you enter a new phase of life.
Do a Bucket List Year
Grab your bucket list and start to do the things on it. Do one a month, or at your own speed, and do as many as you can. Plan with friends for shared items or take turns choosing something of each person’s list to do them all together.
50th Surprise Party
Celebrate your loved one’s birthday with a surprise party made just for them. Keep it under wraps and decorate while they are out
Share Stories of the Birthday Guest
Encourage each person who attends to share their best story about their experiences with the guest of honour. Record it on video or audio so these stories and memories can be enjoyed over and over.
Create Custom Birthday Invitations
Design invitations that are custom and personal to the birthday person and send it to friends and family.
Have a Firework Display
Pick up some fireworks to end your 50th birthday celebration with a stunning display.
Hold a Sandcastle Contest
Head to the beach and build sandcastles, see who can be the most creative, who’s stands the longest, or which is funniest.
Upgrade the Cake
Upgrade the standard birthday cake by ordering a custom cake created just for the event with the birthday person in mind. Custom cakes are a stunning and fun way to share interests and to display personality at any party.
Cupcake Tower of 50 Cupcakes
Have 50 cupcakes for this 50th birthday party idea. Top them with things they love or with a picture from each year of their life.
Use Custom Glassware
Have custom wine glasses or other made and each guest can take home this memory of the day. These can include fun phrases or images that are associated with the birthday person, to remind friends of them each time they enjoy a drink.
Take Your Dinner Party Outside
Set up a picnic or a long table outside, add lighting and decorate the table, and create an elegant outdoor diner party.
Replicate your Best Birthday Party
Choose a coming of age birthday, their favourite birthday, or a milestone to relive and base the entire party on recreating that. Find similar decorations, track down the games that were played, make or order the same foods, and don’t forget to recreate that cake!
Have a Make Over Party
Gather friends and family, and enjoy some pampering, try new make up looks, choose a new hairstyle, or just have a touch up of your current look. Hire a make up artist, hairstylist, clothing stylist, and photographer to capture these new looks and keep the memories forever.
Appetizers for Lunch
Encourage mingling by having appetizers for lunch and let people pick their own meal. Many appetizers are finger foods and easy to clean up, letting people make a plate and wander, chat, and enjoy the ambiance.
50th Birthday Bonfire
Light a bonfire in your own back yard or on a local beach, for a touch of personalization write down all the things you plan to leave behind and burn them in the bonfire. Invite guests to bring things they want to leave behind as well, or provide paper and pens so they can write them down and join in the experience.
Go Hiking With Friends
Gather your friends and take on a hike. It can be a short local hike, a walk around a local pond, or be a challenging hike up hills and through valleys. Match the difficulty to the capabilities and experiences of the guests for safety and to ensure everyone enjoys the day.
Decades Theme
Pick the best things from each decade of the 50 years and use a different decade in each aspect. Set up a photo booth that has props from each decade to record the moments, the friends, the family, and the fun.
Make Your Own Cocktail Party
Set up a make your own cocktail party and let friends share and compare the drinks they create. Guests can create a drink, mix it, name it, and share it with their friends.
Frozen Drinks for Summer Parties
Serve only frozen drinks, frose, slushies, frozen sodas, or create a snow cone bar with or without alcohol.
Old School Pizza Party
Go back in time and celebrate with a traditional pizza party. Turn on the tunes, add soda, and maybe a sundae bar for dessert.
Remember When Party
Share memories of the birthday person over the years on place cards, notes shared on the walls, on the tablecloths, and more.
Fabulous at 50 Party
Use Fabulous at 50 for the theme. 50 balloons, 50 cupcakes, elegant decorations and a fabulous vibe.
Taco Tuesday Party
Taco Tuesday lets you have a party with a build your own taco bar, and enjoy your Tuesday party like it’s a Saturday.
Host a 50th Birthday BBQ
Have a laidback backyard BBQ for a relaxed birthday celebration. You can provide all the foods or encourage a bring your own potluck and people can bring the things they enjoy most to share with everyone.
Crafts & Cocktails
Host a crafts and cocktails party where you try new cocktails and make new crafts. This is a great way to expand interests and learn a new skill.
Private Yoga Class
Hire a Yoga instructor to host a private yoga session tailored to your needs, or bring your closest friends to enjoy the experience with you.
Sound Bath
A sound bath uses singing bowls to create an immersive sound experience that can calm the mind and relax the body. Have your friends join you for an experience you’re sure to remember.
Wine and Cheese
Create your own wine and cheese night or hire a host to discuss and learn the pairings of what wines and cheeses go best together.
Weekend at the Cabin
Gather a few of your best friends or your spouse, or both, and head up to a cabin in the mountains for a restful weekend away. Enter the new year rested and relaxed.
50th Birthday Party Ideas Final Note
If you are planning a 50th birthday party, then hopefully these 50th birthday party ideas have helped. 50 is a great age to celebrate, and there are so many fun ways to celebrate your half century!
About Author
Jane Sheriff is the founder, creative director, party planner and mom of three. She started Darling Celebrations back in 2012 to share easy and beautiful ideas for celebrating the special events in life.
