Is someone you know turning 80 this year? Perhaps a parent, grandparent, other relative or close friend will celebrate this milestone birthday. Improved nutrition and medical advances mean people are living longer and celebrating birthdays well into their nineties. Eightieth birthdays, ninetieth birthdays, and even one hundredth birthday parties are celebrated in larger numbers every years. If you are looking for eightieth birthday parties ideas, here are three to get you started. Keep in mind that these ideas are easily adaptable for other milestone birthdays.

Choose an 80th Birthday Party Theme

By the time a person has reached 80 years of age they have usually acquired a hobby or two. Perhaps they love knitting, football, reading, camping, or quilting. Use your imagination and creativity to come up with unique ideas.

• Think about the person whose birthday is being celebrated, and what will make them smile at their party. It is easy to find sports-themed birthday decorations, invitations, and balloons at party supply stores or online.
• Use a theme of “80″ if you are having difficulty coming up with a different theme. Create eightieth birthday centerpieces using a glass vase containing 80 candies or wrapped chocolates to anchor 80th birthday balloons. Using the Internet, find products, landmarks, or brands that are celebrating their 80th anniversary and incorporate them into your eightieth birthday party decorations and menu.**TIP** search “famous 80 year olds in 2012″ or the current year and you will find hundreds of suggestions.
• Decorations for a man’s eightieth birthday celebration: Set up small displays highlighting a photo from different time periods of the birthday boy’s life. For example, one area could highlight a high school football career with a jersey and pennant, and even a local newspaper headline (check online – you will be amazed at what you can find.) Another display could be based on a career – are there professional photos, tools, or uniforms that were worn? Again, turn to the Internet to find supporting statistics, newspaper articles, etc. to accompany the memorabilia. Perhaps sailing was a favorite past time – are there any life jackets, sailor’s hats, or life preservers floating around that a display could be built around?

Plan an 80th Birthday Photo Quiz Game

Scan family photo albums for pictures of the birthday honoree through the years to plan an 80th birthday party quiz.  Use these photos to create a fun game that everyone can work on throughout the party. This works especially well for a sit-down dinner.

1. Choose eight photographs of the birthday girl/boy, one from each decade of their life.
2. Use your own computer, scanner, and photocopier, or visit your local Kinko’s or Staples to shrink and arrange the photos chronologically on an 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper.  Make sure there is enough room under each picture for at least one line of text. Title the page “80 Years of BIRTHDAY NAME HERE.” And please don’t forget to insert the correct birthday name.
3. Print out as many copies as you will need – one for each team of two to three people seems to work best.
4. At the beginning of dinner, once people are seated, distribute the quizzes with pencils.  Party guests will guess the age of the birthday girl in each picture.  This is harder than it sounds – even though the photos are arranged by decade it can be difficult to decide if someone is four or five years old, especially if the clothing styles are different and the photo is in black and white!
5. During dessert time, take up the quiz.  This is a good time to share short stories of what was going on when the photo was taken.