A New Way to Party

I was introduced to the issue of kids' birthday parties by a friend who enlightened me on the oneupmanship going on between parents to make their kids' parties memorable. I subsequently read horror stories where parents went overboard with very expensive entertainment for a bunch of kids (we're talking thousands of dollars). On the other side of the story are parents who are reacting to that state of affairs.
ECHOage is such an initiative. The child whose birthday it is goes to the site (presumably with a parent), chooses a charity (Canadian or American) and sends an e-invite to his/her friends. In turn, they send money that would have been spent on a card, wrapping paper and a present to ECHOage. ECHOage divides the money between the charity and the child. The child gets to buy ONE present. The idea is that the number of presents each child was getting was ridiculous and that they did not appreciate it. With ECHOage, the child gets to choose one symbolic gift that represents that year thus eliminating waste. It also shows the child a concrete way to share with others less fortunate.
I love the idea but I am also sad that it has come to that. There is a sense of loss because of the way in which we give. For kids, somebody else buys the gift and they perhaps don't participate much in that aspect. Perhaps people will bring handmade gifts to keep with the spirit of giving alive? In any case, it's nice to see alternatives cropping up.