What can one possible do to celebrate 80 years of life and make it special?

Question

My mom will be hitting the big "80" soon and we have pretty much been there, and done that for the other birthdays. Any ideas would be appreciated.

So many great ideas. I am taking a little of everyone's suggestion for a great day. Thank you all!

Answer 1

Parachuting.

Actually you could do a movie of her life with scanned photos, her favorite music. You can use windows movie maker and photostory 3, both free from Microsoft.
Save it to DVD and show it on a television.

Answer 2

I've been to two 80 year old birthday parties. They were both in the daytime. The lady turning 80, sat in her comfortable chair all day during the open house. Her daughters had plenty of food, drinks and birthday cake.

The other party was mostly family. They took group pictures of all the off-springs. We watched a slide show of his life. It was funny and we all laughed al lot. Then his brother, the entertainer, put on a show celebrating his 80th birthday. They also had dinner and cake.

Both parties were so special and fun!

Answer 3

Why not make her a card or a poster from the kids, grandkids and great grands of 80 reasons why we love you.

There's something called a Legacy Keepsake, offered by Hallmark I think , that you can have gramma record her memories and stories so that the kids, grandkids and great grands will have her stories in her voice.

My mum didn't make it to 80 and although my aunt did she didn't want any party.

I think having an open house, no gifts, of her church and the people she knows is a really nice way to commemorate her birthday. You can present her with the 80 reasons why we love you. Play music from the eras of her life , get a picture bd cake of her .

Get her a corsage of her favourite flowers.

I wish my parents were here for me to celebrate their bds, my dad would have been 90 and my mum 86 this year.

Answer 4

Why not ask her what she wants to do? She may have a secret ambition, or something she thinks is too silly to talk about - but that deep down inside, she really wants to do? Then get together with the rest of the family and make it happen. I just celebrated my 75th by going in (and winning) a solo canoe event. It was great. For my 70th I did a long distance swim. Everyone thought it was goofy,but that was what I wanted to do and my wonderful husband had a birthday cake waiting for me at the finish line.....

Answer 5

Does she belong to a group? You know, a bridge club, a church, something like that? Would they like to be included? That might be a little different.

Or what about doing something she hasn't done before, like going up in a balloon? Where we are, there are afternoon lake and river cruises that can be a special sort of event. Or everybody go to a play and come home for cake.

(But if you gave -me- a big birthday party for 80, I'd punch you in the nose. Everybody's different, I guess.)

Answer 6

Buy her something you know she'll love to wear, then ask her to wear it that day. The bra, the undies, the slip, the hose, the shoes, the purse, the jewelry, a completely new outfit -- maybe even gloves and scarf, coat and hat. Then take her to a restaurant where she's never been, that you know will have what she can eat, asking management ahead to bring out the candles on top of whatever dessert she can eat, at the end. And have a friend while you're gone, welcome her back home with a banner saying Happy Birthday ________[name] flanked by candles.

Answer 7

Simplicity can be nice. A very nice dinner with a close group of loved ones. A photo album that you created. Take a group pic as well during the event. At 80, most people don't want a raucous party.

Answer 8

For my mom, we had dinner at her place. For my aunt at 100, we gathered, had cake, sang happy birthday, took pictures. This showed we cared. You don't need to do a big "blow out". They just like family to be there. If she can, take her out to a meal. Let the people there sing happy birthday, if it won't bother her. Again the key is being there. For another aunt in the nursing home, on her 94th, I got her a rose, a small gift, and then we sang happy birthday, and shared some cake.
I hope this helps.

Answer 9

its funny that you ask that cause we just celebrated an old friend's 80th . Since they lived in California and his family lived here in the east and many of their friends live in the east and south, the family notified as many people that they could remember and asking other people they knew to send a birthday card to that person with some fond memories or funny things that happened with them either growing up or as newly marrieds. Everyone sent the cards and he got hundreds of cards with all great memories and anecdotes. I thought it was a great idea since noone could be together for the big event.

Answer 10

My boyfriend's parents both turned 80 last year. They planned a gathering at the community building where they lived.They put an ad in the paper announcing it with a request for no presents, but pictures and memories only.It was the first time I had met his parents, but I was impressed with the number of people who showed up young and old to share their memories.Alot of people were old neighbors or people they had worked with over the years.It was really nice. Plus, my boyfriend and his sisters had someone put together a video of their lives starting from the time they were born to the present. It had music from the past that was their favorite playing in the background. Plus, we had great cake and ice cream too!

Answer 11

When my mom turned 80 [8 yrs ago] I gave her a surprise party. She thought we were just going to dinner with the family; but I took her to a jazz lounge where she and my Dad used to go, that also had a restaurant. Not only were my kids and grands there, but I invited her closest friends from childhood [4 of which lived in this area] and two came from our home town for the party. After dinner we went into the lounge that had live music and my son danced with her and my eldest grand daughter who sings, sang her happy birthday on the band stand. She had a wonderful time!

At the time she had not yet been diagnosed with alzheimers, so it was really her last birthday celebration that she truly enjoyed. :-)