30th Birthday Party Ideas

Dirty Thirty can mean a few things. You could be very literal and tell everyone to come as dirty tramps, chimneysweeps, etc, but to most people a dirty thirty party is a wink, wink, nudge, nudge, dirty old men and/or dirty old women party.

If you're not willing to be quite so uninhibited, you could make it a flirty thirty party. It's all a matter of degree so make sure you let your guests know the expectations.  The costumes, games, decorations and food will reflect how far you want to go.

Over the Hill is a party theme that fits 30, 40 or any milestone age that make people realise they are getting on.  Next stop 40!

Party Decorations.

• Costumebox – 30th birthday decorations including banners and invitations

Party Games and Ideas

You can choose a general theme from the list of party themes or try to make it a bit more specific with games like…

• Get a photo of the birthday person from each year of their life and make a poster for everyone to look at.  You'll need the cooperation of their family for this – and it's probably best if you don't raise any skeletons.
• 30 is the new age to stop messing around and start being grown-up. Get each guest to say (or dress-up as) what they want to be when they finally grow up.
• Make a poster or list on a whiteboard of 30 things that happened in the year the birthday person was born. See who remembers them.
• Play 30 things. You can either get each guest to make their own list and read them out or get a whiteboard and pens to do a communal list. Try to include a mix of some silly ones for laughs and serious ones too.
  • 30 interesting things about the birthday person
  • 30 nice things about the birthday person
  • 30 favourite memories about the birthday person
  • 30 things they are glad they did before they were 30
  • 30 things they are glad they no longer have to do
  • 30 things they want to do before they are 40

Food

• Have a cake with 30 candles – that's getting close to a forest fire. Or 3 cakes with 10 candles each to mark the decades.  You can have a standard shaped cake and draw a 3 and 0 on with icing, their favourite sweets or make a template using greaseproof paper and sprinkle coconut on the uncovered part.  See our cake page for a scrumptious butter cake recipe.

Gifts

Make it clear to guests whether gifts are expected or not, and if you like serious or fun gifts. You can see some gift ideas for 30 year olds here.