by Sandra Lowen

Created on: December 06, 2009

Birthday Celebration Ideas for 60-Year-Olds

I'm 64.

I still work out and Lady Clairol is my best friend. Denny's refuses me the Senior Citizen's discount and occasionally people think I'm my son's sister, so I have no use for a fuddy-duddy birthday party. I'd balk at 'senior' activities, though I'd appreciate the gesture, and I'd refuse to blow candles off a Low Cal birthday cake. No bibs to catch spills and drooling, please, and no Depends, gaily wrapped. As a recent AARP cover stated, 'sixty is the new thirty', and I'm a believer.

Here's how I've celebrated the day for the past five years:

Age 60: We did a theater party Chicago, off Broadway, as our budgets wouldn't allow us to afford seats for ten people that weren't behind posts. Then I hopped on a plane and flew the fourteen hours to Buenos Aires, where I celebrated again with Portenyo friends, under the Southern Cross.

Age 61: We had a movie marathon of all my favorites; we supplied the TV and DVDs and our friends brought the food and stretched out on the rug. We watched both volumes of Kill Bill, the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy, and all three Lord of the Rings. Those who couldn't hang went home as required, or quietly sank into our TV chairs. The rest of us went past midnight, nibbling on leftover birthday food.

Age 62: My husband suffered a heart attack earlier in the year, so we stayed at home and kept things simpler. Since my birthday is close to Thanksgiving, we threw a food feast for some folks that wouldn't have celebrated the day otherwise, with a birthday cake after. After dinner we gathered around the piano and sang every song we could think of, while one of our teenaged friends videoed the event.

Age 63: I jumped on a train in New York and traveled out to Seattle, viewing the sights along the three-day trip from a glassed-in observation car. On the West Coast, after the requisite birthday cake, my son and some of his cop buddies took me target shooting in the back woods. To my great surprise I was quite adept at it, and thoroughly enjoyed showing off my bull's eye target sheets to friends back home.

Age 64: The two of us took a trip to D.C. and environs, where we hunted around in antique shops, saw the sights and savored the cremains of my brother's turkey roasting efforts. Then we, along with their kids, and friends, cleared the tables and played games Uno, Scrabble, Scattergories and Taboo. Neighbors came over to complain about the noise we made with our whooping and clapping, but most of them remained to participate.

Next year I'd like to take advantage of living in the heart of spa country, and invite my ten best girlfriends to a day of pampering and beauty with dinner after, or run off to a casino for a day of donating to the gambling industry, dining and dancing, or get dolled up and go to a wine and cheese tasting. Or we'll set up a line of easels in the basement and create artwork.

My dad at eighty danced me into exhaustion at his birthday party. I just might throw a boogaloo bash, as we did for him. But then I have to wait another sixteen years.

Learn more about this author, Sandra Lowen.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.