Episode 391 – Hosting kids’ parties without clutter

Ingrid: In the uk we buy around 28.5 million new presents every year for kids parties aged 11 and under. If a million children each attend five parties a year, each party has a party bag with three plastic items in it. That is 15 million short lived pieces of plastic being handed out every year, and that's just in the uk. Today's episode is all about making children's parties more sustainable, the overwhelm of excess clutter and waste. Our guest, Charlotte, is a mom of two and founder of No Crap parties and the kids party packed campaign.

Ingrid: Hello and welcome listeners. I'm Ingrid.

Lesley: And I am Lesley. Now, if you are here for the very first time today, or you've been listening in for ages, we want to say a huge thank you we have a little favour to ask.

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Well, hello and welcome Charlotte. Thank you so much for being a guest on our show. We're absolutely delighted that you're here.

Charlotte: Thank you, Ingrid. It's it's brilliant to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Ingrid: You are. So welcome. You reached out to us and I was like. We need to talk to you. This is, these numbers are mind boggling. And of course, having less waste and saving money is right up our streak here at the Declutter Hub. So what a great topic to talk about, on the podcast. And of course, we're at the start of New Year, so it's like a great way as well to kind of, it's January, it's cold, it's rainy, it's boring. So let's look at this while we've got a bit of head space and we're kind of all still recovering from Christmas and thinking, oh gosh, all this stuff that's come in, what now? So what better time to talk about this? And of course we're definitely listeners are going to talk about kids parties and all of that. But we're going to talk about some intentional gifting and other celebrations as well, because you can really make this really wide and really look at like, how are we celebrating birthdays and, and other things in the first place. So really appreciate you being here. So talk me through it. A normal kids party these days. Before you started all of this, what did it look like to you?

Charlotte: Well, so, I mean obviously they're all different 'cause all families are different, but kind of for younger kids in particular, at the start of primary school, it's often a big party and people often will invite the whole class. So that could be 30 kids coming to your party. and the standard thing and the standard kind of expectation and culture in the UK anyway is.

To take a gift so that you often find there's a, a table kind of piled high with presents. quite often that's kind of a guess at what that person wants because you probably don't know that child or that family. so there's a big present table. There's, you know, and then there's an expectation at the end that there's a party bag.

and often that will be filled with kind of plastic bits and bobs, some sweets. You know, whatever random things that the, the mom or dad can grab off the shelves at Asda often, or off Amazon. So, you know, we are, we are kind of receiving and giving gifts at these parties in, in really big quantities. Like you said in the introduction, I.

Ingrid: Yeah, I know, and, and I, I, I was, I was telling Charlotte that our, my kids are now 17 and 19, but I remember this very, very clearly. It's the little plastic bag. It's the piece of cake in a napkin that they put in it at the end of the party. And that's actually a. Surprised me most about children's parties here, because as most of our listeners know, I'm from the Netherlands.

And in the Netherlands you would actually cut the birthday cake at the party and you will eat the cake at the party. So when people were here, so when the first parties were happening here, when the kids were little and they got a party back and I found a piece of cake in it, in a napkin, I was like. What is this all about? I completely did not get it, but then I understood. It's just the way you guys do it. You cut the cake and you blow out the candles, but then you cut the cake up and you fold a piece of cake in a napkin and you put it in the party bag with probably a, eraser and a pencil and some plastic bits and little, I don't know that what stuff.

It's, that's,

Charlotte: Yeah, slinkies, bouncy balls,

Ingrid: I

Charlotte: funny little toys that break before you get home.

Ingrid: Yeah, yeah. So you saw that, and then what happened? Were you like, so you, your kids were little, you saw this happening and in the beginning you probably were just swept up in this whole thing, right? Because we all do.

Charlotte: Well, so my, my children's still quite young, so they're two and nearly five. So we are at the very beginning of this kind of party. Thing. And, but really it was more that I'd heard my friends talking about it who have got older children and so much moaning about, first of all, the amount of money that, that these parties are costing them when they're having to buy a gift for every single one.

Secondly, the time it takes up and every weekend going to a party. That's kind of beside the point here. but yeah, and then these party bags full of stuff and they're like, you know, I've got these bits everywhere. What do I do with it? My child's now. Clinging to this thing that's half broken and I feel bad putting it in the bin.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Charlotte: but you know, it ends up getting stuffed in a kitchen drawer. and yeah, so that, you know, lots of people talking about all of these issues and I kind of just thought, why are we doing this? It seems like parents, most parents really don't like. This culture that we have and the way of doing things. So if we just all agreed to do it differently, we could kind of just lay each other off the hook.

But it's like this kind of elephant in the room nobody wants to say. so I thought I'll just say it and see if anyone wants to join in and agree with me and sign this pact that we've got, to, to just say, yeah, like. Should we just all agree to just do it differently? 'cause this is crazy and nobody likes it.

and you know, obviously there's so many environmental impacts of it as well and financial, so

Ingrid: yeah, yeah.

Charlotte: yeah.

Ingrid: very true, isn't it? It's not just indeed, of course, the time of all the, you know, the, the, the 25 to 30 birthday parties, but it's all the time as well, sourcing presents. it delivered the money that the presence cost because you know, it used to be a couple of pound, but now you know, you are easily spending between five and 10 pound, let's be honest. then of course, indeed for the people who throw the party, the party in themselves, you know, seem to get more and more elaborate every, every, every year. But it's indeed all the other bits and bops, you know, it's the cake, it's the decorations, it's the, the party bags, it's all of that stuff and it's adds up tremendously.

So

Charlotte: Yeah.

Ingrid: how so as you thought, I'm gonna take a stand here, and it kind of went a bit crazy, didn't it? Because I think you ended up in the press with this all, didn't you?

Charlotte: Yeah, so, yeah, a lot in the summer. I ended up, in the Times and the, the, the headline was a little bit misleading, I have to say. it said that I'd banned presence, which I absolutely haven't. And if you read the article, luckily it was, much clearer than that. but obviously they love a, a sensationalist headline.

but yeah, you know, I started it. Almost just over a year ago now. and, you know, grew organically, got people talking. I set up the Instagram account, I was sharing things on there. And then, you know, obviously it starts being picked up and, a journalist followed me on Instagram and I sent her a message and said, I've like.

Have you seen this? Would you be interested in writing about it? And she jumped at the chance because she could obviously see that this was really relevant to so many people. so yeah, it's you know, it's steadily building up and because it is something that affects everyone really. 'cause we all give and receive gifts.

And just because this is focused on children at the moment, we're all involved in Christmas and weddings and. Baby showers and all of the other occasions that we give things. and, you know, we're not always satisfied with that. So,

Ingrid: yeah, yeah.

Charlotte: But you know, one of the things that came out of the Times article that I really want to, because of that headline, I'm not anti gifting.

it's just about being more conscious about how we gift and more thoughtful about other people's finances, their homes, and what they may or may not want in them. and the, and the environmental impact. So, yeah.

Ingrid: I think probably, you know, I, and I think it's so true, isn't it? It's not only the, it's also the environmental impact, I think, you know, 15 million bits of plastic. I mean, we think about that, it's just absolutely shocking, isn't it? For something that. It's really well, you know, fun and well intentioned, but when you think about it, it's like, well, hold on a minute.

This is crazy. You know,

Charlotte: Yeah.

Ingrid: is too much. And,

Charlotte: Yep.

Ingrid: and also definitely of course the, the financial aspect as well for, for people, but also for me, of course, I was looking at just the clutter. That it creates. And that is really true, and I know this from experience Charlotte, done many, many a toy rooms over my time with, with, with parents where the, where the bags are still intact because they get just, or in a bedroom, they get flung into a bedroom somewhere when they come back from the party.

Sometimes when there's multiple kids, multiple parties in one weekend. And then you find this party bag months later with a moldy piece of cake in it, and it's like, whoa, what are we doing here? All of us, right?

Charlotte: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I mean, it is, it is crazy. And that's, that's the feedback that, that I've had throughout the campaign is I get messages almost every day now, from people saying, thank you so much. Like, it's so nice to know that I'm not alone in feeling like this and that, you know, I'm part of this community of people now who are saying, we don't wanna do it like this.

Let's do it differently. And then they, they have the confidence to. To, to take a different approach and, you know, avoid all of that clutter and all of that waste.

Ingrid: Yeah,

Charlotte: so yeah, but that's why people are into it.

Ingrid: yeah. And so you set up a, a pact. So can you tell us a little bit more about that? Because you kind of, after the art, you, you took it, you went way beyond, like, okay, I, I want to talk about this, I want to do Instagram on this. But you really took the next steps, didn't you?

Charlotte: Well, so the, so the idea of the pact actually came, so as my background, I'm a marketing consultant, and I've worked with lots of learning, businesses that basically do learning and development and adult learning. And one of the things about if you're gonna get somebody to change their behavior and do something differently, it really helps if they can make a public.

Some kind of commitment, a public commitment. so behavioral science tells us that if somebody makes a, a commitment to something publicly and they sign a pact, that they're much more likely to do it. And that also, if they're seeing that other people are doing it, then those social norms really support them to make that change.

So I knew that from my background and I thought it's all well and gonna be talking about this. We need to get people to actually do it. And so let's have a pact. And I was inspired by the Smartphone Free Childhood Pact. I dunno if you've come across that, but it's about, you know, saying let's not give all of our children smartphones too young.

And if all parents do it and all the kids in your kids' class do that, then they won't have that peer pressure. So it's the same concept. and so the pact has got three parts. the first part is, give gift guidance. So if you're hosting a party for your child or any, any occasion, give some gift guidance because if you don't, people are gonna go rogue and you're gonna get whatever thing they can find off the shelf, Asda or on Amazon.

And that gift guidance could be whatever you want it to be. It could be, don't bring a gift. It could be, we encourage something secondhand or it could be my child is saving up for this Lego set. If, if you want to give something two pounds in the card towards, that would be great. so just give some form of guidance.

That's the first thing in the pact. The second thing in the pact is when you're giving out party bags or party favors, do it in a more sustainable way. so basically no plastic bits and bobs

Ingrid: Yeah.

Charlotte: that people don't want, and they go with the bin. and then the third thing is when you give a gift to do it in a more conscious way.

So giving homemade, secondhand sustainable experiences, cash, anything that's not. Negative environmentally. and also follow the gift guidance that people give. So those are the three parts. It's the gift guidance, no plastic titan party bags and giving consciously. And the the thing is as well is that we don't sort of like make everyone sign up to all three at once because some people aren't ready to say that they're gonna give secondhand gifts.

They are very ready to say they don't wanna give out plastic tank party bags. So if you just wanna sign up to that bit first, like that's absolutely great. Like it's brilliant and we don't want to exclude anybody who's not quite ready yet for those other things. So yeah, you can kind of just say, yeah, I'm gonna do this one thing actually, and then maybe next year you'll realize that you wanna do a bit more.

And that's great.

Ingrid: absolutely. And if people are like, yes, I am in Charlotte, where can I sign? Where can they find the details? And well of course we'll wanna put them in the show notes as well. But tell me, where can people find out about your pact?

Charlotte: So the easiest thing for you to do is go to the website and you can go to kids party pact.org. and that's the easiest way you can get there. It's on the homepage. You can sign the PAC there.

Ingrid: Okay, brilliant. And I've done it, listeners, I've done it. Although my kids are not little anymore, I thought I'm gonna support your course. Because mainly for me, it's, it's the plastic that, that I find very, very tricky. And I, when the kids were little, I did party back as well because everybody did them and it, but I always try to be, you know, a, a bit more sustainable and have maybe a pencil in there that they could use or. I, I, I think I did little books one year, but I mean, you know, it, it's, you need to have the budget, you know, for if you do these things. So, and, and never a, piece of cake seen in my party bags. We just ate the cake at the party and the kids were always completely confused. I was like, oh, we can, yeah, we eating the cake now.

I'm like, yeah, kids, we're going to eat the cake now.

Charlotte: To be fair, we, we have the cake at the party as well, so, yeah, it's not, it's not always the, it is not always a, a thing.

Ingrid: exactly. Exactly. well I would love to know more about conscious gifting and some examples and those kinds of things. So let's go for a break and we'll talk some more to Charlotte after.

Hi everyone. Welcome back. I'm chatting with Charlotte from, no Crap Parties, and that sounds a bit, a bit, in your face, but we have been talking about how can you make. Kids parties more sustainable and not have so much clutter and plastic and access come into your home after the party.

Especially like it's normal here in the UK to invite the whole class, especially when they're little and you end up with honestly between 25 and 30 presents and it's like, wow. Where am I gonna put it all because of course all those presents very well-meaning from all the parents, but they have to be put somewhere and a lot of people struggle with, with space and they don't want all this stuff.

And I was looking on your, website, Charlotte, and I saw some really good, Texts to put on invites. And then I thought, oh, how clever is that? So do you wanna tell a little bit more about that? Because you, you gave like 10 examples, right? Like how you can say to people, don't want gifts or, yeah, like in a really nice way.

And I thought, oh, that's great. I wanna talk to you about that, because I thought it was really clever.

Charlotte: Yeah, so, so we call it gift guidance and that's something we encourage people to do as part of the Kids Party Act. And it is something that people find really difficult, I think sometimes is kind of saying like. Or because they don't want to appear ungrateful or rude. But actually I think we need to sort of like shift that mindset and be thinking it's helpful.

It's actually really helpful to those other parents to have an idea about what to do. So you're not being ungrateful or rude, you're being helpful to them and and you're also being kind to yourself. the other thing is that there's, so we did a survey and 43% of families find it a financial strain buying presents for all the kids' parties they get invited to.

And so you're also really letting people off the hook because if you are struggling financially and you feel like you have to turn up with a gift that's worth five to 10 pounds and that you might not send your child to that party, and that is really sad if your child is excluded because you can't afford to buy a gift.

So I think we also need to think about it from that perspective of being inclusive of everyone. So yeah, there's a load of examples on the website, which people can go and check out and steal from.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Charlotte: and I think first of all, it's thinking about what do you, what, what do you want for your child? Or what would your child want?

And it differs from a, like, you know, it changes as they grow up. our experience so far has been. Three and under. They don't have the concept of gifting. Just say no gifts. Like that's what we did. We just said, no gifts, please. They have everything they need, like, and then, you know, if that's that. but sometimes people do ignore the no gift request because, because they think you don't mean it.

Ingrid: yeah. I was gonna ask you about

I was like, oh, do people go rogue on this? Sometimes?

Charlotte: They do. And then it creates some awkwardness. If one person brings a gift and another person doesn't, and the person who doesn't is like, oh, should I have done and now I feel bad? And you're like, no, I actually really didn't want you to. So thank you. So, you know, if people do give you gift guidance, just listen to it.

'cause they probably do mean it. So, yeah, there's loads of examples on there, ranging from, somebody told me recently about how they've, like slightly older child really wanted a paddleboard and so they just asked people for a very small contribution towards the paddleboard and obviously it's gonna take a long time to save up for that.

But, you know, that's one thing other people had like a hot wheel set that they, their kid wanted and, they asked people for two pound contribution to buy this secondhand hot wheel set. So money contributions. Some people feel a bit uncomfortable about, so it might be that you just say, you know, we're trying to, reduce our waste.

So we'd really encourage a secondhand gift.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Charlotte: but then my absolute favorite, which is what we've done, and we're gonna do again for my daughter's fifth birthday, is, the toy and book swap.

Ingrid: Oh,

Charlotte: So from a clut, from like a clutter perspective, it's brilliant because what you say on the invitation is, please no gifts.

Instead bring, a pre loved book or toy and you can decide if you just do a book swap or a toy swap or, a merge. But we said, please bring a pre loved book, wrapped up for a book swap. And so nobody bought a gift. And they just bought the book and it went into a box and then at the end of the party, all the kids got to pick one out and it was like a surprise for them.

So everyone got to open a present at the end. And though there were a couple of extras in case people had forgotten, but also it meant that our daughter could then have some extra books as the birthday girl. and then we sent them all home with their book and a little chocolate, and that sort of doubled as the party favor.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Charlotte: we ended up with nothing more in our house than we had before. And then most people can, are happy to have as many books as you know, as they can fill on a shelf kind of thing, aren't they? So, so that's my favorite. And we're gonna do a toy swap for her fifth,

Ingrid: How

Charlotte: that's what she's asked for.

Ingrid: clever is that? So, and the, you said I had a couple of spares, in case.

Charlotte: Mm-hmm.

Ingrid: then look in, in your children's own toys or do you go, for example, to a charity shop and see if you can find something? Or do you do like a mixture of that?

Charlotte: I, I've done a mixture. so it depends on you and whether your child is willing to give something up, because obviously they're gonna see the other child opening it, so if you, you can't exactly sneak it away from them.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Charlotte: so we, I think we, like, we went to a. a charity shop and picked something out and, and that meant that my daughter also then got the opportunity to be part of it and choose something.

And what was really nice, and this is kind of what I hoped would happen with the kids' party packed, is people then come to that party and then they say, that was brilliant. Like, why don't we all do this? I'm gonna do that for my child's party. And my favorite story was after last year when we did the book swap.

Our friends up the road, their daughter was about to turn six and she'd been at the party and she loved it so much that she said on the way home to her mum, mom, I love that. I want to do a toy swap for my party instead of the normal presents because she'd obviously been to lots of parties and where they do all the presents and she chose herself to do the the toy swap.

And then we went to that party and everyone loved it and people were like, we're gonna do this too. So it spreads and we're sort of like normalizing this different way of doing things.

Ingrid: Yeah. Oh my gosh, I absolutely love that. What a great idea and what a great idea indeed to, and then you can actually have to ask the kids themselves. Right? Is there a book that you've read and that you've loved and you know, you know, you don't see yourself anymore, reading? Or is there one that you. gotten around to reading yet, and you can, would like to gift for the book swap. And I think children really understand that. And it's not a biggie if the pa, if the parents are involved. Right. So

Charlotte: Yeah.

Ingrid: kids are okay. It's always the parents are worried about all these things. I think

Charlotte: Yeah, exactly. And I think we have to remember, particularly when they're young and they're sort of like five and under, we are teaching them this stuff, like we are setting the expectations and we have the power as parents. To decide what those expectations are. And collectively, if we do that together, then all of our lives will be so much easier.

And obviously it gets harder as they get older and they've been to more parties and they've seen more other people get like a whole pile of presence and they think that's what they want. But I also think we need to give them some credit that if we talk to them about it, they learn about the environment at school and like they, they understand things and we can talk to them about it and they will understand.

And I think. People have said that about the money thing, that when they've said to their child, would you rather have like 10 random little presents from your friends or would you like to save up for this thing that you really, really want? And they often check Will will say the thing that they really want.

Ingrid: Yeah. And luckily when the kids get older, the parties get a bit smaller

Charlotte: Yeah.

Ingrid: well. Right. So that's really good. So, Right. So would like to know more then about Okay, gifting and that kind of thing because yes, definitely we need to do more conscious gifting, right? We have to keep, you know, the planet in mind and be mindful of people's finances and the mental load it takes to organize this all. so can you give me some examples of being more consciously, you know, if you are like, no, well, I love this whole book and Towa thing, but. Not gonna happen. Not gonna happen. What kind of things could people do besides asking for a contribution in maybe, you know, towards a bigger gift? Have you got any other ideas?

Charlotte: well, one of the things I love is the just giving an experience or a voucher for something. So we get loads of emails from people and messages about stuff that they've done and, things like giving them a voucher for a local ice cream parl. Like what kid wouldn't love to go and get an ice cream?

Ingrid: Yeah.

Charlotte: or, you know, invite saying, here's your present.

We're gonna take you to the cinema,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Charlotte: like you and your little friend, a little take little date to the cinema or out for pizza or, you know, something like that. a sort of little experience. And obviously that can get more expensive, but something like an ice cream is still gonna be under five pounds. or, Or just, you know, think going to the charity shop and having a browse around charity shops. There's so much good stuff in there, often almost brand new. and just choosing something secondhand because there's a gazillion toys in the world, we don't need to keep making new ones. Like let's just use the ones that we've got.

Ingrid: exactly. Exactly. I love

Charlotte: Yeah. And I, I think, yeah. I was just gonna say, the other thing is just to like really be thinking what, what would these people actually appreciate and what it, where do they live? Like you said, do they live in a small flat, like they don't have space for all of this stuff. What can I be doing that's mindful and conscious of their situation?

And also like then if there's an expectation, if you buy them a lavish gift, are they then gonna feel like they have to buy that back for you? And is that something that they can do? Like maybe, maybe not.

Ingrid: Exactly. So another question before we kind of talk about other celebrations. How is your own family, so are they on board with all of this? I mean, you know, you've got young kids yourself, but of course you probably have. Parents and family and aunties and uncles. And how did they feel about this all?

Are they on board with your kind of mission or are they like, well, but we just wanna buy our grandchildren gifts? What do you mean we can't give them anything?

Charlotte: Well, largely, excuse me. Largely they are on board, which is really great. I've got a very close relationship with my family and, when my, so my, I've got an older sister and she has older children that are older than mine and I, and I did see my mum. Being very, generous, let's say

Ingrid: Hmm.

Charlotte: those grandchildren and they live abroad so she doesn't see them often.

And she would kind of be, you know, a bit what I would say over the top with the presence that she gave them. So when we had our kids, I was like, mom, that's not how we're gonna do things. So, you know, I don't want all of this stuff in our house. and. And I'm, you know, I'm mindful of the environment, so yeah, please.

And I just spoke to them about it and they understood and they have actually really kind of gone on their own journey in terms of their environmental concern over the last five years or so as well. So we've sort of been on the journey a little bit together. So they really get it and they have actually really embraced it now.

And, you know, at Christmas there was, within my family, my sister came over from South Africa and she bought like a suitcase of, her kids' old toys for, for my kids. I mean, you could argue flying it all the way from South Africa, like it's not the best thing to do, but they were coming anyway.

and my mom and dad gave some experience gifts. I gave my niece and nephew, I took them ice skating.

Ingrid: Yep.

Charlotte: actually it was like really, you know, we did really embrace it. There was a lot of secondhand gifts as experience gifts. so, yeah, they've really embraced it. And then with my husband's family, they have all, you know.

I think obviously it's, they're my husband's family rather than mine, so I can probably be a little bit less direct with them. but they have all embraced it as well. Like we had, a few years ago we hosted Christmas and we just said before, like, we, we would really like to make this a secondhand Christmas.

so we just really encourage you to give secondhand gifts and guys', parents basically went in their loft and found all this old stuff. That they didn't need anymore, and it was actually really nice for them to pass on some of these things to their children and their grandchildren. So yeah, people have twigged on,

Ingrid: Yeah, it's amazing

Charlotte: is good.

Ingrid: it, you must, you must definitely feel so proud as well that your kind of idea is kind of now, you know, through to other families and people and then, you know, all over the world. And now we're talking about it in the podcast. You, you were in the paper and it really must feel like. Really good to feel that you're contributing to. and also definitely the environment, but also just the experiences that kids don't need to have toy known to men. Because we know that, I think of if kids have hundreds of toys, they play with like 10 on a daily basis. So why on earth have they got hundreds of toys?

It makes no sense whatsoever. They don't need to have every new gadget and everything, but. It just creeps in over time, these behaviors and these things. And when you all do something that's been a tradition like for a long time, it's sometimes hard to kind of go, but hold on a minute. I, I don't wanna do this.

Charlotte: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I, I, I, I'm really loving doing this because I care about it and I think that's the main thing, isn't it? Doing something that you really care about and I'm passionate about it and I, it is really, I love, there's nothing I love more than when I get a message from people saying about what they've done for their party and like how it was really great to get confidence or see ideas from other people, but I'm also incredibly impatient and I want it to go faster and I want more people to sign the pact because I'm like, this is just.

Like, we just need to change this. And you know, we've just gone past Christmas and I'm sure there's a lot of people who are thinking like, oh God, like that was a bit excessive. Or, you know, I've spent so much money, it's January and I've got no money left and there's so much stuff in my house. I've gotta get rid of all of these things.

And, you know, it's kind of the perfect time to, to make a, a bit of a last minute New Year's resolution about how you're gonna move forward and just, and it goes beyond just, Parties and gifting. It's really about how we're consuming as people in general. Like we're getting advertised that all the time and it's quite hard isn't it, to ignore that.

But you, you can

Ingrid: Yeah.

Charlotte: you can just like not

Ingrid: Yeah,

Charlotte: buying stuff 'cause it's easy.

Ingrid: yeah, exactly. And it's not only, kids parties, is it? It's it's adult parties as well. It's all the celebrations and it's, it seems every, every year there's like more stuff for Valentine's Day and more stuff for suddenly St. Patrick's Day, which is an Irish thing, but suddenly it's like, what if we got St.

Patrick's Day stuff? And then you've got Easter, which normally used to be just. Maybe an Easter egg and now it's like decorations and the whole thing.

Charlotte: Yeah.

Ingrid: is it? You mentioned christenings, you mentioned weddings. So

Charlotte: Yeah.

Ingrid: you like, gosh, let's not forget. Halloween. Indeed. So what would you like people to do when they think about all these celebrations?

Because you're not, you're not a party pooper, are you, Charlotte? You're not, somebody's going, no parties. Never. That's not the point, is it?

Charlotte: No, definitely I love a party and I also actually really like giving gifts and receiving gifts. So I'm not saying no parties, I'm not saying no gifts. I'm saying let's think about what actually makes these occasions fun and what brings joy and memories in those occasions. And it is not the thing that's wrapped up.

so like what, whenever you're having a celebration or you're like, you know, celebrating an event, what is it that you want? To, to take away from that in terms of a memory or a feeling, and how can you create that and it doesn't. Mean, that's, that's normally not to do with presence, it's to do with who's there.

It's to do with like having the right music and having the right atmosphere and like good food and you know, fun games or whatever it might be, depending on the occasion. And yeah, it's not the presence that everyone's gonna remember. It's all of those other little moments that you can create to celebrate something.

And you know, and like for all of those occasions that you've mentioned, like Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, we like, we don't need new. an Easter bucket and a Halloween bucket. Like just have a basket that you can use for all of those things. Like it's don't need another plastic thing that then goes in the bin five minutes later.

So I think we just need to pause before we rush off and get swept up in that supermarket aisle of things and just say, hang on a minute. Have I got something at home that I could use for this? Could I dig something outta the recycling bin to craft for that instead with my child?

Ingrid: Yeah,

Charlotte: rather than just keep buying new things.

Ingrid: yeah. I think it's all about that awareness, isn't it? It's all about, and that's I think, why I, I really wanted to invite you to the podcast today. It's just talking about this and, and hopefully our listeners will go. Gosh. Yeah, I do buy stuff all the time, and I get tempted by that supermarket aisle in Tesco's with, with all of the Halloween decorations or the Easter decorations or the Mother's Day, decorate, whatever.

I mean, they, they find a new thing every time. To make us buy more stuff. And it doesn't mean you can never buy anything. We are realistic like that. And we talk a lot about it here on the, on the show that I am, I am not very much a shopper. but of course it doesn't mean I never shop. I have to eat and you know, I occasionally wanna have something new to wear, but it's all a bit more of awareness like. Why do we, you know, if we never did Easter decorating before, why all of a sudden are we feel we are, have to decorate our whole house for Easter? Well, we've never done it before. Is it because we're being influenced by socials and Instagram videos and all of that? Where am I gonna store all this stuff? You know,

Charlotte: Yeah.

Ingrid: do I have a loft full or an attic full of plastic boxes with. Easter and, Christmas and Halloween and St. Patrick's Day and Valentine's Day. You know, why am I decorating for Valentine's Day, which is one day a year and a cart would, do. You know what I mean?

Charlotte: Yeah.

Ingrid: it's all about taking a step back for a minute, right?

And going, I. What are we doing here? Why are we doing this? Do we need to have all the decorations? Do we, you know, it's just maybe a bit of bunting for a party. Is that enough? We, we don't need to have everything matching and a new theme every year. And also for Christmas, have a whole new color for every Christmas.

I, I see this on socials and I'm like. What's happened with the old stuff? You know, where

Charlotte: Yeah.

Ingrid: of this stuff? These people must have sheds full of stuff that is used once because it looks great on video. But then what, where does it all go? And it, it's all I, I just like my 50-year-old Christmas decorations and were my

Charlotte: Yeah.

Ingrid: You know what I mean?

Charlotte: Keep it classic. That's what I say. Keep it classic and it will last for, for a long time.

Ingrid: Exactly. Well, Charlotte, thank you so much for, sharing your, your thoughts. Tell me one more time, if people wanna sign the SPECT and get on board, where can they find all the information?

Charlotte: Yep. So you can go to kids party packed.org and just, it is packed with a tea, not packed. It's kids party packed, dot org. and you can also follow us on Instagram. just search no crap parties.

Ingrid: Beautiful. I've made notes, so I'm gonna put the right link in the show notes. all of our listeners, listeners, let us know you. I would love to hear your thoughts on this podcast episode. Are you inspired? Do you wanna sign the, the, the kids party packs? Has this made you think and going, well, my kids are old now.

I don't have kids parties, but. I'm gonna think about more intentional gifting. I mean, we did a, a really good episode about intentional gifting, back, it was episode 373, so definitely have a look at that. That was really kind of around Christmas time. It was, in October, I think, September, October last year that we did it. But, you know, have a listen to that again, and, and think to yourself, what can I do differently in 2026 to. Save some money, save some time, save some mental load, be better for the environment. It doesn't have to be huge, gigantic steps. It can be one small step forward that you think, you know what? I need to talk to my family.

I need to talk to my kids. I want to be on board with this. It's the small steps, isn't it, Charlotte? That make can make a really big difference and you've, you've shown us all that. That's the case.

Charlotte: Yeah. Do you know what, if you're worried, if you think you were overloaded with presents this Christmas, schedule yourself an email to send you in like November this like this year, to remind your family that you don't want all that stuff again.

Ingrid: That is a very, very, good action point for everybody. So listeners, let me know. Send me a comment, send me an email. How do you feel about, Being all having, just having less plastic and, and having more money and more time. It sounds really good, doesn't it? So hope you get on board with this. I hope you support Charlotte, with her pact. And, thanks Charlotte for being a guest. I've really enjoyed this podcast.

Charlotte: Thank you so much. It's been really fun.