diff --git a/package/nodejs/Config.in b/package/nodejs/Config.in
index 016aeb4e1a..8d0bd8fd60 100644
--- a/package/nodejs/Config.in
+++ b/package/nodejs/Config.in
@@ -27,7 +27,10 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_NODEJS
 	# uses dlopen(). On ARMv5, we could technically support static
 	# linking, but that's too much of a corner case to support it.
 	depends on !BR2_STATIC_LIBS
-	select BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_NODEJS
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_NODEJS if BR2_PACKAGE_NODEJS_MODULES_ADDITIONAL != ""
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_PYTHON3
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_PYTHON3_BZIP2
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_PYTHON3_SSL
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_C_ARES
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBUV
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_ZLIB
diff --git a/package/nodejs/nodejs.mk b/package/nodejs/nodejs.mk
index 92a9493e25..e9fe96812f 100644
--- a/package/nodejs/nodejs.mk
+++ b/package/nodejs/nodejs.mk
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ NODEJS_VERSION = 16.16.0
 NODEJS_SOURCE = node-v$(NODEJS_VERSION).tar.xz
 NODEJS_SITE = http://nodejs.org/dist/v$(NODEJS_VERSION)
 NODEJS_DEPENDENCIES = \
-	host-nodejs \
 	host-ninja \
 	host-pkgconf \
 	host-python3 \
@@ -240,6 +239,7 @@ NPM = $(TARGET_CONFIGURE_OPTS) \
 # We can only call NPM if there's something to install.
 #
 ifneq ($(NODEJS_MODULES_LIST),)
+NODEJS_DEPENDENCIES += host-nodejs
 define NODEJS_INSTALL_MODULES
 	# If you're having trouble with module installation, adding -d to the
 	# npm install call below and setting npm_config_rollback=false can both