We’ve been doing giving parties in our family for several years now and they are downright magical.

Chances are you’ve heard about fiver parties— the latest birthday party trend. If you haven’t, here’s the gist: Instead of each guest bringing a trinket for the birthday kid, the guests bring $5 so the birthday child can combine the money to purchase something they really want. It’s pretty genius and parents have been applauding it for the past few years. Well, if you love the fiver party trend, let me introduce you to this no-gift birthday party alternative: the giving party.

We’ve been doing giving parties in our family for several years now and they are downright magical. Here’s how they work: Instead of asking guests to bring a five spot or not mentioning gifts at all, you ask guests to give to an organization or cause chosen by the birthday child.

Related: The stress-free way to host a ‘fiver’ kid’s party—according to an event planner 

Our family first started doing this when my youngest was in about kindergarten. He wanted a big party with all his friends and I didn’t want anyone to feel excluded, so we decided to invite the entire class of about 20 or so kids. What I didn’t want, however, was 20 gifts. My kids have very generous grandparents, aunts and uncles; they definitely didn’t need more gifts and I worried that showering them with a mountain of toys would cause them all to lose their luster a bit.

So instead of reducing the size of the party, we asked our son to choose a charity to give back to. We asked guests to not bring a gift, but knowing that this request often gets ignored, we told them that if they really felt compelled to bring a gift, they could instead make a donation to the World Wildlife Fund (my son’s chosen charitable organization). 

It was a huge success. My son had a great birthday with his friends, we avoided that mountain of presents to wade through and the guests' parents could either skip the gift entirely or make a donation with a click of a button.

It was such a success that we did the same thing with my younger son. He chose the local homeless shelter to give back to. We again told guests that no gifts were necessary, but if they really felt compelled to please bring items for the local homeless shelter (my son’s chosen organization), such as socks, backpacks, toothpaste, toothbrushes and umbrellas. 

Related: This little boy’s surprise garbage truck birthday parade will warm your heart

Birthdays are great. All those presents? Not so much. With a “give it away” party, you avoid all those unnecessary gifts and can share the fun of the birthday celebration with others in your community. 

"* " indicates required fields