10 Best Celebrations of Life Ideas

Celebrating the life of someone who has passed away allows you to grieve while also making the experience less about sadness and more about celebrating the fact that you got to know such a great person. A celebration of life honors a loved one. 

Closure is one of the most – if not the most- important parts of the grieving process. A celebration of life can help you get the closure you need so you can begin healing. A celebration of life differs from a memorial service in one major aspect. A memorial service follows a traditional plan and is usually more formal. 

At the same time, a celebration of life can be anything you want it to be as long as it’s about celebrating the person you lost. Of course, there is no wrong way to remember someone after they’ve passed. Here are the best celebrations of life ideas. 

While some celebrations of life can be expensive, you can have a celebration of life for your spouse if they had life insurance. Once you collect the insurance, you’ll be able to spend some of the money on celebrating the person you lost. 

1: Small Gatherings

You don’t have to have a huge gathering to celebrate someone’s life. While you should always have a funeral and invite the person’s closest family and friends, your next step in the process doesn’t have to be a gathering of more people. Instead, you can have a celebration of life that’s just a group of people closest to the individual who passed away. 

These small gatherings don’t have to require any special attire or be formal in any aspect. Instead, you can invite people over to your home to talk about the person who passed away and get to know them from other people’s perspectives. By getting together with others who care about the person in the same way you did, you can help each other smile through a difficult time. 

2: Share Memories

Whether you choose to have a small or large gathering, you can still share memories about the person who passed away. Memories hold a lot of emotion, including laughter and tears, and none of these emotions are wrong to have during these times. Some great ways to start a conversation going about your loved one is to: 

• Present a slideshow
• Show everyone photos and photo albums

3: Use Music

Music can help us get through difficult times, such as grieving. But, while you can play music created by your loved one who has passed away, most people aren’t musicians. Instead, you can play the music you know they enjoyed to honor them. 

You can also ask guests to write down a song that reminds them of the person they lost. Next, you can create a playlist for the celebration of life. You can also ask everyone to share the reason why the song is special to their relationship with the person you lost. 

4: Have a Lantern Release

Lantern celebrations of life are very popular because they allow you to let go of something while raising it to the sky. It’s also beautiful to watch as your thoughts and prayers about the person you lost drift away.

5: Tribute Video

A tribute video can show all of the great videos you have of the person you’re celebrating. You should also ask others to contribute to the video. Make sure your tribute video has bits and pieces of every aspect of the person’s life. For example, you can show videos of when they were young and aspects of their everyday life, like hanging out with their children or getting dressed up on Halloween. 

6: Display the Urn

If your deceased loved one was cremated, you could display the urn during the celebration of life to let everyone have a chance to say goodbye. This can give other people who didn’t have the opportunity to attend the funeral closure and also make them feel closer to the person they lost. 

7: Displaying Their Things

Your celebration of life can display things other than the urn as well, such as their favorite body pillow that still has their scent on it or their childhood doll. Displaying their things will allow people who were in their lives at specific times to remember them and start the grieving process with happy memories. 

8: Guest Readings or Stories

Similar to sharing memories, you can have one guest stand up and share something about the person you’re celebrating. These stories can be happy, sad, or anything else someone wants them to be, as long as you provide a safe space for someone to talk about their feelings. You can also ask people to read something that reminds them of the person you’re celebrating. 

9: Memory Board

Ask all of your guests to bring a printed photo of the person you’re celebrating so they can contribute to a memory board for the relatives of the person you lost. This memory board can help the relatives cope with grief while giving everyone something to contribute other than food or their condolences. 

10: A Party

Parties can seem disrespectful depending on who you invite and how everything is handled. However, there’s nothing wrong with throwing a party in honor of the person you lost. Instead of grieving, you can celebrate someone and celebrate life by hosting a party in their name. 

Before you decide to plan a celebration of life party, talk to the family or guests to see if it’s something they’d be interested in. A party may only be appropriate for someone who has passed away if they used to be the life of the party or enjoyed throwing parties themselves. A party might also be something you do with friends rather than the relatives of the deceased. 

Planning a Celebration of Life

A celebration of life can be anything you want it to be, and it doesn’t require any formalities. However, before you decide to celebrate life, make sure you consider everyone’s feelings. Some relatives might find a memorial service better suited for saying goodbye to the person they lost. 

You can also choose to have a memorial and a celebration of life for different groups of people. If you lost a friend, you could host a celebration of life for other close friends of the deceased and a memorial for the family that allows them to grieve in the way they are accustomed. 

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