51 Fantastic 50th Birthday Party Ideas - Darling celebrations (2024)

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 50^th 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 50^th 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. co*cktails 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 50^th 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 50^th 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

See Also

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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 50^th 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 50^th 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 co*cktail Party

Dress up and share co*cktails with your loved ones at a co*cktail 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 50^th 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 co*cktail Party

Set up a make your own co*cktail 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 & co*cktails

Host a crafts and co*cktails party where you try new co*cktails 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!