I'd like a Sid and Marty Krofft theme

"When I was a kid...."  Isn't that the way any anecdote starts when some old fogey wants to talk about how things were different (read: better, harder, simpler, boring-er) when he/she was a kid?  I'm not going to talk about walking to school in snowstorms, or gathering around the wireless to listen to The Shadow, or awaiting the arrival of the iceman (no, not Val Kilmer) in his horse-drawn wagon.  No, mine is much more mundane - to us as adults, that is - but right up there with Christmas in the eyes of a child.  Birthday parties.

Now, when I was a kid (you just knew it was coming, right?  No?  Are you even paying attention?)...anyway, when I was a kid, birthdays were right up there with Christmas - maybe even a little bit higher because it was all about you.  Hell, even if it wasn't yours, they were always big events.  You could end up at several birthday parties throughout the year and gorge yourself on ice cream, cake and other sweets while playing silly games like pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, blindman's bluff or spin the bottle (oh, wait a second, maybe that was later).  Parties were always in someone's basement or kitchen or at a local bowling alley or pizza joint and the theme was simple - "Hey, it's your birthday.  Enjoy your cake and presents."  No Princesses.  No Sponge Bob.  No Handy Manny.  No frills.  Just white paper plates and Styrofoam® cups and maybe some conical hats emblazoned with "Happy Birthday."

Now it's all about theme parties.  Coordinated plates and cups, streamers and balloons, tablecloths and napkins.  There have to be special order cakes and a special guest is a must - usually an out-of-work actor wearing some atrocious costume - or else your party is just some pedestrian exercise in frivolity, rather than the tres chic, tutti di tutti extravaganza every five-year-old yearns for.  But, wait, there's an even more disturbing trend: requests for no presents.  NO PRESENTS!  WTF?  How else are you supposed to determine who is the better friend?  "Well, Aidan did find this very cool Buzz Lightyear with the laser that's really a lightbulb, but Stevie found this really cool Death Star with working superlaser.  Aidan, who?"

This is just my over-ranting way of getting to a question for all you fine folk out there.  If you get an invitation to a birthday party and it does say, "No gifts please," do you follow the invitation's request or do you ignore it entirely?  And, as a follow-up, do you feel guilty when you show up with nothing and everyone else has ignore the request?  Is a stack of TV dinners an appropriate gift?  (that's for you Sarah)