Organize a surprise Party
On every birthday, and on every Christmas, as a kid you waited for surprises. Each year on the eve of these days, you went to bed expecting to see some sort of surprise when you wake up. This is a payback time now; it’s your parents’ marriage anniversary.
Do the Unexpected
Childhood is the best part of any man’s life. We realize this when we are way out of our childhoods. No gift can be better for an elderly couple than giving him and her opportunity to relive their childhood. The super event I am asking you to plan will present your parents with this kind of opportunity. I am asking you to call all the childhood friends of your mother and father, and arrange a party for them.
Making your parents relive their childhood is the central idea behind the super gift we are going to discuss here.
Preparation for the big night
This will be a surprise party, and by that I mean, your parents should not be aware of the people on the guest list. You can safely tell them about the party you are arranging for them. There are two benefits of this action: one, your parents will not make any other plan, and two, your parents will get ready for the big occasion.
Party planning
Start with making a guest list. This guest list is going to be unlike any other guest list that you ever had for any other party. Only those people who have a relation with your parents’ childhood should be included in this guest list. The idea is to invite as many childhood friends of your parents as you can, and make them relive their childhood. They will always be thankful for this sweet gift, and will always remember this night. The possibility is high that they even rejoin ties with many of the invitees with whom your parents’ ties got snapped due to various reasons.
To prepare one such list, you will need to take leads from your parents. Ask them, and even ask their siblings, their neighbors, or you may sneak through their address book to get information about their friends. Once you have the contact list, start dialing each number, and ask them to join this party. Make clear who all are inviting, and how this could be a memorable event for every participant. Do not forget to request each of them not to tell your parents about your plan.
Walk that extra mile, but make sure, your parents’ friend agrees to attend to the party. Arrange for their commutation, if you can. Seeing their age, you should make all the preparation to make their journey less exerting, and tell them how far you are planning to go to bring them to the super event.
The next step is to create the ambience. The first step in that direction is to talk to your parents’ close friends, and ask them about the kind of environments they used to create in their parties, also ask for your parents’ favorite activities; kind of games, or fun activities they were doing as kids. Mimic them. You can also ask your parents about these things indirectly without disclosing your intention.
Once the plan for the ambience is in place, it’s time to think about food. You should remember that given the age, the guests might have some health-related issues, prepare food accordingly. Ask your parents or their friends about their favorite candies, cookies, or biscuits; include them in the menu as well. The cake should be the one they drooled over when they were kids. If they liked two different cakes then get two different cakes for the occasion. Music should also be from the same era. The party, in its entirety, should be a time machine that will take all the guests back in time to their childhoods.
Time to execute
Once every planning is done, starting making arrangements, stealthily. Get video recorders installed at various places to record this memorable party as well. I am asking you to install video recorders and not to use it because I want to suggest that no one other than their childhood friends should be present in the party, not even you. You should also leave the room once the cake is cut, and your share of cake is given to you. Get out of the venue and let them enjoy!
Pack up time
Once the party is over, collect the video footages from the recorders. Make a good disc from the footage with a good jacket, and dispatch it to everyone on the guest list with a thank you for participate note. This will love it!
Word of Caution: You need to make a balance. The people and the things you arrange for the party, from friends to music to food to ambience to candies, should reflect the childhood memory of both your parents. None of the two should feel that something is missing from their past.