Anti-Party Birthday Celebrations

What if kid birthday parties were not overwhelming and were more like a low-key play date? Behold the anti-party birthday celebration. Here is what it looks like:

Guest List
One key to the anti-party birthday celebration is creating a manageable guest list. You should stop reading right now if you want to invite everyone in your kid's class. I recommend a small guest list that isn't overwhelming to the birthday kid or parents who are hosting. I usually aim for the number of guests to be close to the birthday child's age. So, for my son's sixth birthday, he invited eight of his friends. I'm not stingy about siblings coming along at this age, so a couple little brothers and sisters attended, too.

The Event
Rather than rent a space and pay a premium for a birthday party package, I looked for an event that was already scheduled, and we treated the party as a slightly bigger than normal play date. In our case, there was a great dinosaur event being held at a local, free museum, and we spent two hours playing, creating, and learning with our friends. We were sure to drop a generous donation in the box while we were there, too.

The basic idea is to pick an event that would be fun to go to anyway and treat it as your party. Scan your local events calendar for something your child would like to go to. A trip to a play space will work if there aren't any events near your child's birthday, and in that case you pay the entrance fee for your child and his or her friends. If you have a warm weather birthday, a trip to a local children's garden or something active and outdoors works, too. Groupon is another good source for thrifty, creative planning.

Gift Bags
Nope. Don't do it. Step away from Pinterest and remember what you did with 99% of the party bags your kid brought home. Don't remember? That's because you hid them under something else in the trash bag months ago. If you think about it, foregoing the gift bag is really doing something positive for the environment. There. You're already feeling better about this decision, aren't you?

Dessert
I skipped messy cake and frosting this year in favor of individually bagged and decorated cookies that I ordered from a wonderful bakery. If you have residual guilt about not handing out a gift bag, these lovely confections will help ease your conscience.

Photo from Five Monkeys Bakery

Invitations
I am a fan of digital invitations because they're super easy for RSVPs. I prefer the designs on Paperless Post, and they have many free options. We used a colorful dinosaur invite for my son's party that perfectly paired with our party theme.

Gifts
Another way to keep things low-key is to skip the gifts. I'm serious. It can really be done, and your kid won't hate you, either.

Knowing that my son was getting every Lego set he desired for his birthday from his family members, I told him that he could either do no gifts from his friends or he could ask them to donate money to a local charity our family supports. Without missing a beat, he said he wanted to give money to "kids who don't have homes." So, on the invite details I asked guests to bring gift cards to donate to the charity. At the party I collected the gift cards, and the following Monday we dropped them off. My son was literally skipping down the hall after the donation drop-off; he was so pleased with himself and so happy to help other kids.

What great anti-party celebrations have you been to? How do you rebel against Pinterest peer pressure?