Celebrate Your 40th Birthday In (your Own) Style!
Mandy Weckford
If your 40th birthday is on the horizon, it's time to start thinking about how you want to celebrate it. Don't feel you've got to do something you don't really want to do, such as throw a huge party if parties are not your thing. However, do make sure you mark the occasion properly. It's an important milestone in your life and it's better to embrace it than ignore it. So many of my friends and family have turned 40 in the past ten years that, if you're wondering what to do for your fortieth, I feel I'm in a good position to offer you some suggestions.
My sister Olivia is a connoisseuse of wine and for her 40th we organised a wine-tasting party at my house. An expert brought some bottles and talked us through the 'legs' and the 'nose' of each one. Needless to say, we didn't spit anything out - but we did learn quite a lot and, as our present to her, my husband and I sent Olivia on a wine-tasting tour of the Abruzzo region of Italy.
My sister Laura's birthday is in the summer and, for her 40th, we (that is, about twenty of us family and about another twenty friends) went to the beach. It was sunny and warm but not too hot and we had a lovely day swimming, chatting, lounging, collecting shells, playing cricket on the sand, eating, drinking and being merry.
Born in 1963, my friend David threw a 60s theme party for his 40th birthday. We all wore groovy costumes - flares, hippy shades, kaftans, garlands, mini-skirts, peacenik sandals, headbands - and had a high old time bopping away to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Small Faces. He had videos of some TV shows from the Sixties, which we watched when we flagged, and 1960s party food, including a mean prawn cocktail.
Having just been through a messy divorce when she turned 40, my friend Deborah decided she needed pampering. Her sister, another friend and I spent a marvellous day with her at her health club, having a swim, being massaged, having manicures and pedicures, chatting in the sauna and having our hair done. After that, we went out for a civilised dinner and felt like film stars!
The idea of giving a dinner party for twenty guests fills me with horror but my friend Rob did this in the ideal way: he hired a professional chef to come to his house and cook for us, in front of us. Rob is a real foodie and having all this sumptuous fare rustled up in his very own kitchen was a dream come true.
I'm always pleased when there is a magician at a party. The magician at my cousin Henry's 40th birthday borrowed a ten-pound note from him, asked him to write his name on it and then made it disappear. Just as we were beginning to wonder whether Henry would ever get his money back, the magician produced a lemon, cut it open and there was the signed tenner, inside the lemon!
Before long I'm going to be forty myself and I've decided to go to New York, with my husband, for my birthday. I have never been there but I just get the feeling I want to be in the Big Apple to greet the big four oh. I want to see all the sights, check out the art galleries, watch a show on Broadway, do some shopping and soak up some of the energy of that great city. This seems a pretty cool start to my fifth decade.
For further ideas and advice to do with
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http://www.fortieth-birthday.co.uk) 40th birthday website.
