(I'm not looking for sympathy, or saying my parents were wrong - I'm just sharing my thoughts on this.)
The declaration "this will be your last birthday party" was made by my parents, shortly before my 7th birthday, with emphasis on the word 'party', rather than 'birthday'. They made that "last" party into a good one, and my slightly younger brother was allowed one more "party" after this as well. What they meant was no more parties with lots of friends round, and games. Everything else remained - presents, cake, singing Happy Birthday, but from then on it was strictly "birthday tea", usually with other family members, and I could have one friend round for this. Also they never prevented me from going to someone else's party, unless we already had something planned (which did happen once: a massive disappointment when you're only six years old).
At the time, the "no more parties" announcement was somewhat devastating to hear: when you're only seven, a year is a long time, "never" is a big word, and birthdays feel precious. It must have taken them a fair bit of courage to make such a declaration. Some years later they explained that when they saw the kinds of parties we were sometimes invited to (whole class invited to McDonalds, disco, swimming pool etc.), they didn't want us to feel that this kind of thing was expected; organising such a party was certainly more than they could afford, or were prepared to organise.
To this day, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Sometimes I feel sad for the parties I might have had, and for the stark way they announced it, but I'm also well aware that at age I struggled with social occasions, which might also have been part of their reasoning. It also means that I now say very readily "I don't do parties" or "I don't do Christmas cards", or "I don't go to weddings of people I barely know" when lots of people grudgingly say "I was invited, I suppose I ought to go". Is this a positive thing?
I was reminded of this by all the recent threads about cancelling Christmas, or at least scaling it back to make it less stressful for she who has to do the real work: lots of people are saying, if you don't want to host a big Christmas dinner, then don't; simple as that. Perhaps it was the kindest way my parents could think of to manage my expectations of birthdays. I very much understand their reasoning, but I remember it was a shock to hear it at the age of six.