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Surprise! Ahhh, that one word surprise - can take an ordinary birthday party and turn it into a unifying secret for everyone on the guest list, but it can also take great secret-keeping skills and major planning for the host or hostess. Being the planner takes a certain ability to walk on egg shells, lie, and create believable situations for the guest of honor. So, let's get started with tips to catch the birthday honoree totally off-guard.

o Choose a date and an off site location early. Choosing an at-home party location is the hardest surprise to successfully achieve since sudden deep cleaning, huge purchases of food, and an avalanche of RSVP phone calls can all be surprise busters.

o Sending invitations? Request that the invitation not be put on refrigerators where kids, teens, and other "untrained" secret keepers might read it and spill the beans.
For an RSVP number, the host should include their own cell phone number, not a land line with a message machine that the birthday honoree might hear. Also, any printed invitation should have the word "Surprise" used at least three times on it for the recipient to understand the theme of the party.

o Enlist only two or three others to help be the "decoy plan" for the night. For example, have a friend, co-worker, pastor, or family member send an invitation to the honoree with a mandatory meeting necessitating the person's attendance. Creative types can even print up elaborate decoy invitations that will further lend credibility to the decoy plan. Another decoy plan might involve an out of town family member declaring that they will be visiting that weekend and want to go golfing, shopping, etc. with the honoree. This is a great tactic because it removes the honoree while decorating and cooking activities can occur.

o Tell as few children, teens, and blabbermouths as possible. Young people that do know of the surprise party should be warned not to refer to it on networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Again, this has ruined many surprise parties.

o Have caterers, delivery people, and others only contact the host or hostess through the cell phone. One left message could burst the surprise balloon!

Finally, the host or hostess should be "calm, cool, and collected" on the day of the party. Changes in behavior can tip off birthday honorees that "something" is about to happen. Now, duck behind a couch because you have all the tips necessary to jump out and yell "Surprise"!

Learn more about this author, Jan Vroegin.
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