The Kids Party Pact: A Kinder Way to Celebrate 🎉
Let’s make children’s parties friendlier on parents’ finances – and the planet.
Every year, parents across the UK spend hundreds of pounds on birthday presents and party favours – and most of it ends up as clutter, landfill waste and a sense of unease. We think it's time for a change.
The Mission
We’re on a mission to transform the culture of children’s parties – to make them more joyful, less stressful, and far more sustainable. The Kids Party Pact is about normalising gifting that works better for everyone:
- More affordable – No more pressure to buy expensive, brand-new gifts.
- Planet-friendly – Let’s normalise second-hand, handmade and meaningful giving.
- Still full of joy – Because kids’ parties should be about fun, not stuff.
What is The Kids Party Pact?
It’s a simple promise parents can make – to shift the way we approach party gifting.
By signing the pact, parents can choose to:
👍 Share sustainable gift guidance for their child’s party
👍 Give or encourage second-hand, handmade or no party favours
👍 Give pre-loved or experience-based gifts – or even skip gifts altogether
More than just a pledge, it’s a movement – and it’s already growing.
How It All Began
The idea sparked when Charlotte hosted a local Toy Swap – helping parents gift pre-loved Christmas toys instead of buying new. It was a hit.
But the deeper conversations revealed the real challenge: how awkward and isolating it can feel to go against the grain at birthday parties.
From this, No Crap Parties was born – and now, The Kids Party Pact. It’s a community-driven solution to a widespread issue that parents are already desperate to talk about.
The Environmental Impact
Children’s party bags and gifts might seem like small details - but they add up to a huge environmental cost.
- In the UK, if 1 million children each attend just 5 parties a year, and every party bag contains 3 plastic items, that’s 15 million pieces of plastic being handed out annually - most of which ends up in landfill as they’re easily broken and hard to recycle.
- If each of those children brings a brand-new gift to every party (which our data suggests is very common), that’s 5 million more newly purchased items every year - many of them mass-produced, short-lived, and unsustainable.
We believe there’s a better way. By swapping plastic tat for thoughtful, sustainable, or even homemade alternatives, the environmental savings are massive and the social ripple effects are even more powerful.
Social contagion
Children’s parties are one of the few spaces where parents from different social circles gather and connect. They’re a brilliant opportunity to make better choices visible. When one parent sees another using low-waste gift ideas or plastic-free party bags, they’re more likely to feel confident trying it too. That’s how change spreads.
Raising conscious kids
Children absorb the world around them. When they grow up seeing that joy comes from great experiences with friends and thoughtful gifts, they’re more likely to develop lifelong habits around sustainability, generosity, and creativity.
By supporting the Kids Party Pact, you're not just cutting waste - you're helping to create a cultural shift, one party at a time.
What We’ve Achieved So Far
- 🎉 Launched in January 2025
- 📊 Surveyed parents – clutter, plastic excess and cost are big issues
- ✍️ Hundreds of parents have already signed The Pact
- 📢 Featured on BBC Radio Cumbria and local press (some nationals coming soon!)
- 📲 Built a growing Instagram community of thousands of parents @no.crap.parties
All this was done by one mum, in her spare time, with zero funding.
Imagine what we could do with your support.
Who is behind the campaign?
The Kids Party Pact campaign is the brain child of Charlotte Mason-Curl. She’s a mum of two pre-school children, and an experienced Marketing Consultant.
With 15 years of experience running effective campaigns and a solid understanding of behavioural science and driving change - she’s got the skills to have a major impact. She just needs a little funding for dedicated time, and to cover costs.
What’s Next – And How Your Support Helps
Your donation will help us grow this grassroots movement into a national conversation. Here's what we're planning:
- 📣 PR & Press – We want to reach national media and parenting podcasts
- 📲 Instagram Growth – More inspiring content, tips, and pact sign-ups
- 📍 Pact Directory – A nationwide list of venues and suppliers who support the movement
- 👪 Community Events – Local outreach in South Lakes and beyond
- 🗣️ Ambassadors – Find and support parents across the UK to spread the word
Where Your Money Goes
£6,000 would enable us to drive this campaign further over the next 6 months through organic channels.
A little flavour of what your donation can help with:
- £7 pays for one month of website hosting
- £13 pays for our email tool each month so we can contact supporters
- £35 allows us to reach out to 4 new potential partners each week
- £50 enables us to activate pact parents via email
- £70 pays for proactive PR outreach every month
- £100 goes a long way towards our weekly social media campaigning
Reaching £11,000 would mean we can invest in events and paid promotion to reach wider audiences faster - and run No Crap Halloween, and No Crap Christmas campaigns.
The money raised will cover:
- Website & hosting costs
- Email platform & design tools
- PR and social media promotion
- Funding a Campaign Manager’s time at £35 per hour to coordinate and grow the campaign further.
Help Us Shift the Party Culture
This isn’t about guilt. It’s about options. It’s about joy. It’s about building a world where parties are just as fun – but more affordable and sustainable.
If you believe children’s parties can be better for families and the planet, back the Kids Party Pact today 💚
Together, we can create a new normal thats more affordable, more sustainable and full of joy.