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We all have our favorite soap operas and some of us have been watching them from the very start for over 50 years now -- General Hospital fans that means you!  And Young and  Restless fans, it's 40 years for you this year!

Soap fan bases are some of the biggest in the entertainment world. But for as long as soap operas have been running, finding ways to get creative in expressing your fanfare can run thin. So how can you stay creative and fresh in showing some love for a favorite TV soap through the form of a birthday party?  Fear not!  Soapdom has you covered.  Here are some tips on how to do it...

The invites
There are some fun things you can do to get everyone involved. Start with the invites. Consider sending out invites that showcase an image of the guest of honor’s favorite soap star, and have the invite say, “Shhhhh, don’t tell the neighbors, we are throwing a surprise bash for our favorite drama queen”. Right off the bat you will be creating a fun and entertaining ambiance.

Custom shirts
You will also want to have custom tee-shirts made for each guest that features a photo of the birthday girl’s favorite soap star. You will need to find a royalty-free quality image off the Internet and save it to a flash drive to take to a tee-shirt printing shop. Your best bet is to use stock photography from an online company that provides high resolution images of soap opera actors. Some of these sites allow you to download an image for mere cents. This image can also be used for your party invites.

Once you have downloaded your image, you will want to save it to a flash drive. If you don’t already have one you can get them for cheap at any electronics store. If you plan on using it just for the sake of transporting the single image to the print shop, you can get a low capacity storage device such as a 512MB option for as little as a few dollars. However, if you like the idea of storing lots of photos on a small compact storage device, go ahead and get a 4GB drive for a few dollars more, or go all out for a 32GB option—they average around $20.00.

When going to the t-shirt shop you can save money by getting a plain white t-shirt. The biggest expense will be on the actual color screen-printing cost. All in all you should expect to spend anywhere from 10-15 dollars on each shirt. If you have several guests ask for a discount.

Another option would be to find an online company that does it—they tend to be cheaper, especially if you are ordering more than 10 shirts. You may also want to consider having a birthday message and the date printed on the back of the shirt to further memorialize it as a keepsake for your guests.

The cake
Try to make the cake reflect the soap opera. In an article published by Yahoo on throwing a soap opera party, the author suggests that if the birthday girl likes ‘Days of Our Lives’, have a cake made in the shape of an hourglass. If she loves ‘General Hospital’, have it shaped like a hospital. You can even create a fun game using the cake. In many cultures people will have items backed into a cake and whoever gets the piece with that item wins a prize. If someone was recently killed off in the favorite soap, have a little fake bullet or dagger hidden in the cake. You will want to make sure it is sanitized, and large enough so that it can’t be accidently swallowed, but small enough to hide. A good choice would be to use a high heat resistant plastic object.

Have fun, and make it a hit for all your children so that they will remember it for all the days of their lives as the world continues to turn.

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