Today is one of the boys' birthdays, so Jeff forwarded this appropriate NYT article to me, bylined in Cranford, of all places:

"Cake, but No Presents, Please", 7/22/07:

[A] number of families are experimenting with gift-free birthday parties, suggesting that guests donate money or specified items to the charity of the child’s choice instead.

The gift-free party does have its detractors, most eloquent among them Judith Martin, who writes the Miss Manners syndicated column.

“People seem to forget that you can’t spend other people’s money, even for a good cause,” Ms. Martin said in a phone interview. “Do you really want the birthday child to grow up hating philanthropy because it’s done him out of his birthday presents?”

Faye Dunaway's Mommie Dearest comes to mind. Of course, this happens all the time with funeral memorials, "in lieu of flowers ..."

The really annoying part of birthday parties, in my opinion, is those darned goodie bags. Like, when did that tradition start?! That's the primary source of "swarms of random plastic objects destined to clutter every square foot of [...] living space," not once a year, but approximately twice a month!

I can't see a gift-free party going over too well 'round here. How about just paring down the guest list? Or, as the article suggests, setting a price limit or encouraging guests to pool resources into fewer, more substantial gifts?

In a couple of weeks they'll have their own party. Their circle of friends is still small at this point and, well, not everyone can attend anyway.

Jeff's timeliness with NYT's pieces is perfect, like this other one from late December.