Personally, I’d dislike a surprise party. Especially if the names were taken from my phone. If I had a close group of friends who ate together often, or shared theater tickets, that would be okay.
I’ve had home parties, prior to co-vid, where half of the food was catered. One intriguing company set up a crepe set-up, with choices of kosher, vegetarian, or whatever.
I would shutter at having a surprise party and I don’t even really like going to parties BUT I think an outside casual party with some music and a food truck would get me to a party! Does the OPs husband have a fav local food truck? Or type of food?
@deb922, my birthday is between Christmas & New Year’s. I have gotten the short end of the stick for celebrations over the years. My 60th was a real doozy … it was my turn to host the extended-family holiday party, and the only day it worked was my birthday. I was all set to clean, cook & host (I am not into hosting parties, BTW), but instead, I got the worst cold I’d had in years (this was pre-pandemic). I spent my birthday in bed … in fact, I spent a week or so in bed. But I still turned 60, and I’ve even had a couple more birthdays since!
For my 60th, my H asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate (I hate surprise parties and stuff like that.) I decided on a dinner party and invited 12 female friends and one male friend (he was fine being the only guy). I didn’t have to do anything. I decided not to invite spouses/partners because I thought it would change the dynamic. I preferred to have a girl’s night celebration.
My husband arranged the evening—he asked a chef who owns a restaurant we frequent to cook for the party and bring people to serve and cleanup. H was the bartender. It was a really fun night. My daughters both surprised me by showing up at the party. (One lived 90 miles away and the other 800 miles). They brought in the cake!
Definitely ask your spouse what he’d like to do for this milestone birthday!
Remind - 60th birthday is big… you can celebrate all year long. Hope you find a special opportunity to do so later in the year.
@Colorado_mom i did celebrate for the whole year…and my friends helped. I think different groups had parties for me over about 6 months time. It was fabulous!
Now…I asked my husband what he wanted to do for his 60th and he said…no party. His choice so that’s what we had. No party.
Not to get off topic but as a non-birthday celebrating person, why is “60” seem to be such a landmark bday? I get “50”. Or is it just the decades bdays???
It’s the last decent birthday before Medicare kicks in and inundates you with trash mail informing you of your age and the cemetery people chime in.
Nah, that’s what the trash can/recycle bin is for!!! 
I just celebrated the whole month long and now do that every year. I keep increasing the time though…soon I’ll be celebrating every day. Good for the soul.
Wait…didn’t you start getting mail from AARP when you were 50?
Carry on!
Yes but that was the 50th birthday. This is the 60th birthday. First AARP, then Medicare and then?
50 was a big year also. We took a nice beach vacation to celebrate my year and a round number anniversary. 55 was another nice memorable trip.
After COVID and being home, I wanted to celebrate again. It’s as simple as that. My husbands as always promised that we could do some traveling after he retired and now he is.
And I’m feeling a little low after 2 years of this stinking pandemic.
Everyday is my birthday, I’m not waiting for any special day to celebrate, that means I give myself permission to buy flowers anytime I want.
That’s said my 60th birthday was also in Dec, there’s no way I’m going to spend an arm and a leg to be in Hawaii during that time, so we went there later after the holidays.
@abasket - just a reason to celebrate/party!
Definitely not doing a surprise party for H. He has organized too many “surprise” parties for me which I absolutely did not want ! The 60 memories for 60 thing will be a surprise and I need the contact info of his friends for that :). These are his close friends from his school and early working years and while I know some of them, I don’t have their contact info.
I like the idea of multiple separate parties too - even if it wasn’t what we intended, it is turning out that way already. And knowing H, he will love these parties.
It was really just a curiosity on my part - so
Many people here celebrating 60 in a special way in particular and that’s not something I’ve experienced in my family!
I think that decade boundary birthday seem like milestones. I say that with my youngest child having recently turned 30.
My husband’s 60th birthday happened to be on that son’s college graduation day. (It is a teeny school that allows each of the 85 grads to have 15 words read as they walk across the stage - son’s last 3 words were “Happy Birthday Dad!”.). The kids thought 60th was a big deal, and when we were on our family post-graduation Europe trip they arranged a special dinner at Munich “181” Olympic tower (think space needle). The waiter thought it was a big deal too and sent us home with a bottle of wine.
This made me literally lol
Hmmm. Can you plan a real vacation for this summer, when you have the passports back? We went to Paris for my 60th, but it wasn’t actually the day of my birthday. I think for big birthdays, it’s okay to fudge a bit. Maybe something small now–dinner out or weekend getaway, for the actual day, but knowing that the big trip in a few months will be part of the celebration.
That’s a great idea! Some restaurants require a reservation if you will be having a big group.