• Milestone birthday parties are a wonderful way to honor the person.birthday party favors image by Photoeyes from Fotolia.com
  
  Celebrating an 80th birthday is a major milestone in a person's life. Throwing the person a party is a wonderful way for family and friends to honor him and celebrate his life. Choosing a theme and the coordinating decorations for this milestone birthday is not difficult, the most important thing to keep in mind is the personality and tastes of the honoree.
  
  

Decade Theme

• You can decorate this party with memorabilia from the decade in which the person was born or while he was a teenager growing up. You can visit antique shops, thrift stores and vintage clothing stores to get memorabilia suitable to the decade. You may decide to depict vintage mementos from the Great Depression era; WWII for the history buffs or even display vintage album covers and play old songs by Chuck Barrie and Elvis Presley from the '50s era. Consider having everyone dress in period costumes for this special occasion. Choose balloons, table linens and banners that fit the theme.
  
  

Picture Collage

• Get together with other relatives and friends to collect pictures that depict the life of the birthday person and use them to decorate the party room. Start with a collage of baby pictures and the elementary school years and place them near the foyer or entrance way. If the party covers several different rooms, you may want to make collages of the person in his teen years for one room, as a young career person or parent in another room and so on. This is an effective way to keep the party guests mingling from one room to the other. Milestone party balloons, banners and table decorations are available at many discount and party supply stores to round out the decorations. Black, silver or white balloons and party decorations will give the party a classic and elegant ambiance.
  
  

Career Theme

• If the birthday honoree spent many years at one career, try to invite as many of her old co-workers as possible. Decorate the party room to fit the career, whether she was a schoolteacher, a lawyer or another occupation. Use appropriate party decorations to enhance the theme, such as a banner of the alphabet for a schoolteacher and old elementary schoolbooks, or set around the scales of justice and legal books if she was an attorney. Cover a table in a quiet area with a white paper tablecloth. Supply permanent markers and ink pens so the guests can write down well wishes and humorous or poignant memories from their career together. Add festive balloons and party decorations in her favorite colors.