5 Y/o Birthday at School

Have a birthday book party. Ask someone to dress up in costume to come and read to the kids. Then give out a small book in the goodie bags. rather than a bunch of little stuff that will end up in the garbage anyway. you could do a mother goose theme, or thomas the tank engine theme or something like that. and the preschool would probably like it too as it can fit nicely into the story time. if parents ask you can say we are doing a book theme so a story book would be a nice gift to build his library. good luck.

I see you are in Austin. Fry's Farm could come and bring their petting zoo. They even have a pony to ride.
They go to pre schools all the time so they are used to young children

Why can't you do the same thing --with the train?
Trains are always fun for kids.

I love the idea of a book party! Talk with your son's teacher and see if you could have the kids do some kind of baking activity or craft that could also be their "goody". You could make something small that the kids could give their parents for the holidays! I used to have my kids (ran a school-based counseling group) make an ornament or something else for their family as party of our holiday celebration. I was amazed by how into they got- and were excited to have a present to give!

Our son's birthday is Dec. 17th so we have the same issue! What we do is that he is allowed the amount of presents that corresponds to his birthday(5 this year) on his actual birthday, then 1 a day every day til Christmas. If there are more, we extend it after Christmas. I feel like his birthday will be overshadowed at school by Christmas forever so we make it last a long time. We tell him that everyone else only gets one day and he gets a week! You could do this between Christmas and New Year's if you wanted to. It will start to matter to him soon that he doesn't get presents if it doesn't already. The more parties you go to, the more he'll want the same.

Have you tried Pump it Up? It think that's where we will be doing our party this year. It accomodates alot of kids but it's only your group in each of the bouncy house type rooms. Then you have a food room, then you're done! We've been to a couple of parties there and they've been a lot of fun. There's one near Burnet Rd. and one off of Gattis School Rd. Good luck!

We did a very low key school birthday party for my son at school last year. It was just cupcakes and a small goody bag for each child (a few little toys and a couple of pieces of candy). My kids have winter birthdays and we do not have space in our place for an indoor party with more than a few kids.

You could have a petting zoo, clown, magican or one of his favorite characters (like Spiderman, Batman or else) to stop by at school or your home..

You can celebrate his birthday few weeks early or after the Holidays to avoid lot of "Christmas" presents during the Holidays. That is what my friend did for his son. It makes easier on Birthday parents to focus on getting ready for the Holidays! You know.. :)

Have fun!!

Kudos for you for not wanting to bombard your son with material possessions. It should be all about the day not the gift!!! My 14yo's bday is in Feb and basically the same thing. I tried 3 yrs in a row to not get gifts and had so many parents fuse at me. 1 or 2 supported the idea. If you search this site, you will probably find the posts about the issue.
What about a "retro" party-bring them all a hula hoop or jump rope, big bouncy ball (1" won't fit in little mouths). This promotes activity and then each can keep the rope/hoop as part of their treat bag. You can also do games with them. Stand in a circle holding hands and pass the hoop around so each kid has to figure out how to get it over their head/shoulders.
The bad news is that the school will probably not let you continue this after 1st or 2nd grade so you have to look toward the future. But starting your son out this way saying you can have a party but no gifts, he will understand. Or talk with him before and say okay you have to pick 2-3 gifts to donate and let him take it to the drop off at the mall. Once you get this started, you can do things like parties at the movies, the zoo, etc.
Another point is some parents can't afford a gift and this helps them to let their child attend and not feel guilty cause they can't afford a gift. One of my daughters best friends never came to her parties and I'm pretty sure it's for this reason cause she did come the year I really enforced no gifts!! As I explained to my daughter, her gift was a great time with her friends and she was always fine with it.

I can understand your delimma, my sister's birthday is two wks before Christmas & it got to the point where our mother wud ask her if she wanted more birthday or more Christmas presents but they always gave her big family get together parties which I never had b/c they'd coincide her b-day w/the family Christmas party so needless to say, she racked up on the gifts. I like the idea of school parties, our mom at least did that for me & like for your son, there were no gifts, just cupcakes or something like that & it was great fun. As for the bounce house, I've never seen just one child in one, I think there IS a limit on how many depending on how large it is so if it's a small one, that's understandable. I thought there was like an inflatable bounce house/slide that I've seen before, maybe that wud be an option. I know there are all types of infatables out there, I'm sorry I can't be of more help! Good luck & have fun.

My dd was born nowhere near December but we still threw her a "No present" party. So you can still do it at a different venue and maintain the no present rule.

But if you want it in school, does your area have a mobile art center. We have one here called arts and scraps. It's pretty cool because it is earth friendly.

Another is a mobile zoo. Contact your local nature center sometimes they are able to bring a reptile or two to school.

For my dd I have hired a story teller and gave out blank books for the kids to create their own stories.

One of my friends kids birthday is 23rd. She asked him if he wants to donate those gifts to Toys for Tots or a like company. He does that every year. On the invites she just asks that in lieu of gifts please bring an unwrapped toy to donate. She almost always gets the parent who feels bad for him, and send along a wrapped present. She will let him keep one or two.
As far as a party, I am not familiar with Texas place, but is there a Pump it Up type of place, or maybe a swimming party, bowling????

Ok, I might sound a bit greedy, selfish, and stingy here, but why are you basically punishing your son for having a birthday 2 days before Christmas? Would you have the same kind of "no presents" party if his birthday was any other time of the year? Most of the "fun" of a kids birthday is opening presents. Why are you taking that joy and excitement away from him?

I have an aunt whose birthday is the 25th, and it always seemed like she got "combo" presents. I always thought to myself, why should her birthday be any less important (because yes, Christmas does trump the excitement of birthdays) than any other persons special day any other day of the year. Then I would think about my dad whose bday is June 23, almost exactly 6 months from Christmas, and how it was basically about the perfect day for a birthday, 6 months between the two.

Why don't you have his party earlier in the month of December, so it is not right in the middle of the hubbub of the holiday time frame? Then on his actual day, you could bring cupcakes to his preschool class.

Or, you could let him celebrate his half birthday and have a party in the summer. I know a teacher who does this for her students who have summer birthdays. Since their 1/2 birthday falls during the school year, that is the day they can bring cupcakes, etc.

I would definitely not go with the moon walk. One child at a time, how boring can that be...for the one child jumping and for the others who have to wait for what is an eternity in their minds time frame. Please!!!

You could always have a party at your home, and on the invite let them know that you don't want gifts...

Traveling petting zoo- they have some that have lots of different animals and such- it could be a farm type theme : )

I'm a teacher, and I always thought it was unfair for my students with summer birthdays (and now my daughter, who has a summer birthday) because they didn't get to celebrate with their friends at school, get a birthday book or pencil from the teacher, etc. So I celebrated their 1/2 birthdays, which they always loved. (June birthdays were celebrated in December, for example.) Maybe you could celebrate his half-birthday, too?

On another note, if you prefer to continue celebrating in December, I totally understand. Around this area, there are petting zoos and a Mobile Dairy Barn that will come in to schools and daycares. In fact, I think the Mobile Dairy Barn is free. Or you could have a face painter and balloon artist come in to amuse the kids. Those always go over well!