Do I sound like Scrooge? I detest the goody bags people seem obliged to give at their kids’ parties. Plastic bags filled with cheap plastic crap, made in sweatshops in China. Kids are excited for 5 seconds, which is all it takes for them to realize that what they have is, indeed, crap, and they abandon it and move on (leaving behind yet more unnecessary clutter).

This year, a bunch of parents from my childrens’ school gave a big joint birthday party for the 6 kids in their class who are turning 7 and 8 this Fall. And guess what? No goody bags. The parents were grateful and the kids dealt with it. Let’s hear it for sanity.

We have, however, made a CD for our kids’ good friends, filled with our sons’ favorite songs — Monster Mash, Pollution (Tom Lehrer), Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (Allan Sherman), Egyptian Reggae (Jonathan Richman), and a dozen others.

Share music, I say, not plastic!