Our oldest celebrated his fifth birthday this month and we decided to throw him a “fiver party”. So what’s a fiver party? I’m so glad you asked. A fiver party is where you ask everyone that attends to bring $5 in lieu of a gift. The parents of the birthday child purchase one big gift in advance of the party. All the money received by those in attendance goes towards one big gift chosen by the child.

Why I like it

He got what he wanted

My son wanted camera this year. Since he is five, we wanted to get him something nice, but since he is five we didn’t get him the most expensive camera on the market. So we settled on a kids version of a camera. Still fully functional, but kid-friendly. He was overjoyed by his gift. He has already take over 125 pictures of anything he wants and the joy on his face when he received his gift was amazing. His pictures are horribly blurry, but I love looking at the world according to my five year old.

Bonus: He doesn’t have to ask for my phone every time he wants to take a picture.

I didn’t come home with boxes and boxes of clutter

I have four kids and I’m a minimalist. Having four kids makes my minimalist self twitch… a lot. There are so many toys that have been played with and discarded that I couldn’t bear the thought of coming home with more crap… er clutter… er toys that will bring joy for one week and then get discarded with the rest of the toys.

It saved my fellow parents money

We all have young kids and if you get invited to ten birthday parties a year that’s anywhere from $15-$20 per kid that you’re shelling out and that can really add up quickly. Not that I don’t want to spoil my friends kids too, I totally do, but it can get excessive.

The leftover money

The remaining money that didn’t go towards the camera allowed my son to go to Walmart and pick out any toy he wanted. Since we have Walmart pickup for groceries and Amazon Prime for everything else, I basically never take my kids shopping, so this was an absolute treat for him. He learned about money and he paid the cashier with his own cash.

Bonus: I threw a few leftover dollars toward his fall sport of choice (tee ball) and his college fund too.

The drawbacks

All the presents

Opening a ton of gifts is exciting for kids. I get it. He didn’t have a mountain of gifts to open. But honestly, I don’t think he missed it. He had a fun time bowling with his friends, he got the one thing he asked for, plus picked out his own new toy at the store.

Conclusion

I love experiences the best. The things my kids talk about are not the toys they got, but the things they did either with their friends or with us. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. My five-year-old treasures his camera and will continue to use it throughout the year. He got a toy he paid for with his own money (teaching money management is a win for mom), and he invested in his future (you’re welcome kid). I call this a win-win-win.

So what do you think? Will you be planning a fiver party soon?