How to Plan Am Adult Chicago Birthday Party Event

Planning a Chicago birthday party for a child or young adult is always a fun event to host.  There are hundreds of birthday party ideas and themes available.  You could host the event anywhere and the child is most likely going to have a great time.  As we get older birthdays are not quite as exciting as they used to be and they’re sometimes even dreaded.  Turning the big 30, 40, or even 50 isn’t always looked at as being a great thing so throwing a birthday event may be a great idea to lighten things up.  Although some may not like this idea, most adults who reach their milestone birthdays are actually anticipating a big event. 

When choosing to plan a Chicago birthday party event you may come up short with ideas and themes.  Often times a lot of themes have been done before and you’d hate to have to imitate your friends.  You’d like to host a party with a more adult theme as well and avoid any child themes.  Finding these themes can be rather difficult and searching the internet you can often times come up short.  This is why we’ve compiled a list of ideas that we’ve seen over the years while performing at adult Chicago birthday parties.  Listed below are a few great ideas you may want to consider when planning your Chicago birthday party……..

1)  The Teen Years.  This theme is great for those who are celebrating an adult birthday.  If they are celebrating their 50th birthday they were born in the 1950s so you might consider throwing a 1950s themed party.  The invitation could read the guest of honor’s name and then it could say “is going back to the 50s”.  Then you could encourage your guests to dress the part with bright red lipstick, cheap white canvas shoes, and even some funky shades.  There are several 1950’s games you could play or you could opt into a trivia game coming up with questions that relate to the 1950s.

2)  Genuine Antique Person.  This theme can be looked at as more of a jest for someone in their older ages.  We’ve seen it a few times for a few Chicago 50th birthday parties.  The concept behind this theme is to create an old country western style theme.  The ideas for decorations are only limited by your imagination.  You may choose to use old rusty wheelbarrows to scatter throughout the room and use them as ice coolers.  You could buy small rusted metal pails and fill them with flowers to use as centerpieces.  You’ll most likely opt for a lot of candles and antique signs.  At this event you could have everyone dress in old antique western cloths or on their invitation invite each person to come as a different villager from an old town (ex: farmer, sheriff, bandit, etc).

3)  Choose their Favorite.  This theme is a little vaguer than the other themes.  You’ll want to find the person of honor’s favorite thing to do or something they love and make that into a theme.  An example would if a person loves to fish. You could then take that activity and create an entire theme around fishing.   You could also use the idea of golfing.  You could encourage everyone to come in their golf apparel and to bring their putters.  You’ll want to pick something that the guest of honor will enjoy and go with it.  The possibilities are endless. 

4)  Imitation Parties.  This theme is when all of your guests are invited to the birthday party and encouraged to imitate the birthday boy or girl.  This can be great fun for your guests as they arrive at the birthday party and it’ll create lots of laughter.  At this party you could create a banner and invite your guests to sign the banner and tell a funny story.  Then later in the evening you could roast the person with the banner.  It’ll create lots of laughter and good times!

5) In Memory of.  This theme isn’t for the faint of heart.  As a joke you could theme your birthday party as a memorial party.  Invite the guests to arrive in all black and invite them to write funny eulogies about the guest of honor.  It may seem to be a weird them, but we’ve seen it done a couple times and if done properly it can be hilarious.

6)  This is your Life.  Instead of choosing to do an “over the hill” birthday party you may want to try hosting a “This is your Life Party”.  At this type of event you can send a questionnaire out with your invitation and ask your guests to complete it with their RSVP.  You can then take these answers from the questionnaire and choose how to present them.  Some have chosen to do a slideshow while others have made up a game show asking questions to the guests and creating a game out of it.  You may even choose to roast the guest of honor.  Some sample questions could be…

1. My favorite thing about ...... (use guest of honors name) is ______________.




2. The funniest thing I ever saw ...... do was when he _________________.




3. The happiest I ever saw ...... was when he____________________.




4. The dumbest thing I ever saw ...... do was____________________.




5. ..... drives me crazy when he _______________.




6. My most memorable moment with ..... was ____________________.




7. List five words that describe ......

7) Ice Cream Party.  This theme is for all the sweet tooths.   On the invitation you’ll want to invite all the guests to bring their favorite ice cream toppers and their favorite ideas on how to build the perfect sundaes and banana splits.  When everyone arrives you can surprise your guest of honor with the biggest and craziest bowl of ice cream.  Another idea would be to purchase a large gutter section from a home improvement store and serve the ice cream varieties in a trough style.

8) Black and White.  With this theme you’ll encourage all the guests to dress in black and then have your guest of honor dressed in white (or vice versa).  It makes for a fun formal night and the guest of honor is almost always recognized by their different apparel.  You can also grab some great pictures!

These are just a few fun ideas you may want to consider when planning your Chicago Birthday party event.  Not all of these themes may work for your guest of honor.  You’ll want to determine their personality and personal interests and go from there.