diff --git a/package/nodejs/nodejs.mk b/package/nodejs/nodejs.mk
index 0938652a2a..efd9308a8d 100644
--- a/package/nodejs/nodejs.mk
+++ b/package/nodejs/nodejs.mk
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ else
 NODEJS_CONF_OPTS += --with-intl=none
 endif
 
+ifneq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_NODEJS_NPM),y)
+NODEJS_CONF_OPTS += --without-npm
+endif
+
 # nodejs build system is based on python, but only support python-2.6 or
 # python-2.7. So, we have to enforce PYTHON interpreter to be python2.
 define HOST_NODEJS_CONFIGURE_CMDS
@@ -110,7 +114,6 @@ define NODEJS_CONFIGURE_CMDS
 		PYTHON=$(HOST_DIR)/usr/bin/python2 \
 		$(HOST_DIR)/usr/bin/python2 ./configure \
 		--prefix=/usr \
-		$(if $(BR2_PACKAGE_NODEJS_NPM),,--without-npm) \
 		--dest-cpu=$(NODEJS_CPU) \
 		$(if $(NODEJS_ARM_FP),--with-arm-float-abi=$(NODEJS_ARM_FP)) \
 		$(if $(NODEJS_MIPS_ARCH_VARIANT),--with-mips-arch-variant=$(NODEJS_MIPS_ARCH_VARIANT)) \