How the big 50 has become the new 21st
For her 50th birthday Cindy Crawford threw a party at her Beverly Hills home before chartering a private jet and travelling to the Caribbean island of St Barts to continue the celebration.
Earlier this year, when he turned 50, Noel Gallagher rented a stately home in the Cotswolds for the weekend and filled it with celebrity friends including Madonna, Bono and Stella McCartney.
When I turned 50 last year, even though I’m neither rich nor famous, I had a similar overwhelming urge to push the boat out in a spectacular way.
And I’m not alone in wanting to make a big deal about reaching my half century. Previously people — women in particular — wanted to keep quiet about hitting such a landmark age, but something has changed. over the past couple of years, I’ve attended loads of fabulous friends’ 50th birthday parties.
From glamorous black- tie cocktail parties in posh hotels to Eighties themed discos where we dressed up as Bananarama and tried not to put our backs out on the dance floor. Suddenly turning 50 is a reason to celebrate, not hide yourself away.
According to Clintons, the UK’s biggest card sellers, 50th birthday cards now eclipse the sales of those for 21st birthdays while balloons with 50 written on them are their biggest sellers. Professional party planners are organising more bashes for those turning 50 than ever before.
And with good reason. While a generation before, 50 might have been seen as marking the start of the slide into dotage, now it heralds the start of a new freedom. Those who had children usually find their offspring less dependent by then, while those of us without, have generally made our peace with that.
In my case I decided to finally do something I had been dreaming about for 20 years — to go on a road trip across America, visiting the places I’d previously only heard about in songs or seen in films. It was terrific.
All in all we visited eight states and covered more than 3,000 miles and I returned home happier than I’d ever been, half a stone heavier and £6,000 lighter. But it was the best thing I ever did, the perfect way to mark my half century.
When I turned 40 I was too depressed about impending middle-age to acknowledge the birthday in any way. And that’s why 50th celebrations have become such big news. At 40, if you haven’t achieved all those targets you set yourself then blind panic sets in.
If you still haven’t got there at 50 then chances are you never will — and most of us are just fine with that. At 50, there’s no more kidding yourself.
Yet we don’t look 50, feel it or act it. We still buy our clothes from Zara and H&M, we get our wrinkles Botoxed, our brows shaped and our bodies toned. In my 50s I have as much of an urge to see the world as I did in my 20s — the only difference is that I now have the money to do it.
When I turned 21, I celebrated by going nightclubbing with a group of friends with money I borrowed from my mum. I can’t remember the name of the club or half the people who were there. But I’m never going to forget my wonderful 50th birthday adventure.
So here are five other great fabulous 50th ideas:
HOST A FESTIVAL
WHILE plenty of 50-somethings still stagger off to Glastonbury, plenty of us want something a little more, um, clean. luckily, it’s now possible to host your own festival.
Avoid using your own garden (a sea of mud is not a good birthday keepsake). Instead, hire a field, invite a few local bands to play, and book a handful of stylish food stalls.
of course, you’ll need loos, alcohol, electricity and insurance, too — so thankfully, there are plenty of companies who can organise it all for you.
All the birthday girl need do is turn up in Hunter wellies and a floaty frock. festivalfor.com
YOUR TASTY VINTAGE
DOUBTLESS, guests will bring decent wine to celebrate the big 50 — but wouldn’t it be better if you could make your own? Wine experience company
gourmetodyssey.com offers two days in the South of France, for up to 20 guests, with time at the organic vineyard learning the ropes, tastings to refine your personal blend, and a session with a designer to create the labels for your bottles.
In six to ten months, 300 bottles of your own custom-made wine arrive. It’s pricey at about €6,000 — but worth it.
DANCING QUEEN
MIDLIFE is the perfect time to embark on learning. Pineapple dance studios in Covent Garden ( www.pineapple.uk.com) offers group events and, for birthdays, you can book a studio and choose the dance you’d like to learn — ideally with a view to impressing (or amusing) fellow guests by performing it at your party.
MAKE IT COUNT
IF GIVING seems a better idea than receiving for a big birthday, host a charity auction. Hire a venue — a hall or function room, ideally with a bar — and decide on your chosen charity. Ask every guest to bring something they’d like to sell (you can theme the auction ‘fashion’ ‘interiors’ or ‘vintage’, or simply take whatever turns up).
Display all the goods, or offers, and enlist helpers to show them off to the gathered crowd during the auction, with all proceeds going to your charity. It’s great fun, as well as an altruistic way to mark a special day. If you want the theatre of a real auction, hire an auctioneer from champions-speakers.co.uk
50 AT 50
THE 50 Challenge is a list of 50 ideas that will give you 12 months of new experiences, designed to whisk you from your comfort zone and enliven your life. Challenges can range from ‘follow a gourmet recipe’ to ‘try golf ’ to ‘get up at dawn and photograph the sunrise’.
Aim for one-off ideas that will inspire you, and avoid anything arduous or long-term (‘learn fluent French’ is a life decision, not a birthday challenge.) This way, the birthday joy will last until your 51st.