I LOVE THIS IDEA! Call me Grinch (and trust me, you will if you meet me in December), but I think it would do well-off children a world of good to, as this New York Times article describes, collect small donations for a local charity or organization in lieu of receiving dozens of birthday gifts. When I was a kid, my most treasured presents were the ones from my parents, while the stuff other kids’ parents picked out for me was often not quite right. They didn’t know I wasn’t into horses, for example.

Of course, I imagine this might be a hard sell if your kid is the first on the block to host a gift-reduced birthday party. But one little boy in the article gets a tour of the town fire station in exchange for his donation. How cool is that? Another benefit could be a lifetime understanding of altruism and modesty, which parents might be very happy about when it comes time to plan the Sweet Sixteen, bar mitzvah, or wedding.

–Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.