Chickenpox parties made sense before the vaccine was available, since having chickenpox as a child was preferable to getting shingles as an adult. The main arguments against the use of chickenpox vaccine are concerns about its effectiveness and the fear of autism. However, the complications of chickenpox can be severe or even fatal, and even partial immunity from a vaccine is better than none at all. My daughter had the vaccine and contracted chickenpox a few years later, but it was the mildest case of chickenpox anyone, including her doctor, had ever seen: maybe a dozen pockmarks in all and almost no itching. The link between vaccinations and autism is controversial but unproven, and the believers in such a link keep trying to redefine it (at first it was the mercury-based preservative in the vaccines that was to blame; then, when the preservative was removed and autism rates kept increasing, it was the vaccines themselves that were responsible), which in my opinion simply demonstrates the lack of any real evidence to support their claims.