Looking for inspiration for gift ideas? We take a look at some of the products on offer from Moonpig.com
Background
The end of October always signifies a special time for us in our house, as we move towards ‘birthday week’. It just so happens that our first 3 children all have their birthdays within the same week, so this is always a busy time for us. We’ve suspected for a long time now that 2020 was always going to present us with alternative birthday experiences from what we would usually be used to – any notion of large parties or get-togethers with family and friends have been shelved for this year – sadly put to bed by continued Covid-19 restrictions. While our kids’ birthday week could never be the same, we were still determined to try and make it as special as we could for them.
Ordinarily, we prefer to give our children experiences over ever more plastic ‘stuff’. This approach has suited our recent lifestyle of having limited storage space while living in a motorhome on the road, as well as matching our views on trying to live more sustainably in general. If you like the sound of this idea, take a look at our alternative gift ideas for children. That’s not to say our children are somehow saints though. Far from it. They still want physical presents to open on their birthdays. Colourful plastic definitely still holds an attraction for them. It was while we were browsing for some of these that we were lucky enough to be approached with a generous offer from the people at Moonpig.com.
Since springing onto the online scene back in 2000 with their original idea of providing customisable greetings cards, they continue to provide this personalised service to millions of customers worldwide. I actually remember buying some of these hilarious cards from them way back in their early days of starting out. What I hadn’t realised, is that they have since diversified their lines to now include a selection of gift ideas for all ages and occasions. I guess I am not alone in this, as it was these gift ideas that they were keen for me to review and promote. Having 3 birthdays in a week to think about, I was never going to turn down anything that could help with this, so the combination seemed perfect!
So here are my thoughts and experiences of receiving a range of children’s gifts from Moonpig.com…
**In order for us to complete this review, we were kindly gifted a range of gift products for free, in exchange for an honest evaluation. All opinions expressed remain entirely our own. We would never take payment or gifts for false or exaggerated reviews.
Ordering Gifts and Cards
All ordering is done online, via the Moonpig.com website, with different divisions on the website dealing with different countries worldwide. The catalogue is well presented and goods are easy to find. While personalised greetings cards are obviously still their biggest seller, dominating the website landing page, it is easy enough to navigate to the section of the website containing the gifts. This section can be filtered to display gift ideas according to who they are for, as well as by occasion or gift type. There is a decent selection for people of all ages.
We were given a credit to select a personalised birthday card for each of our 3 children. After browsing the selection and uploading some photos of the kids, I was able to easily create individually styled cards for each of them, themed on their favourite current TV shows.
Delivery of Goods
Our designed cards were delivered promptly to us, along with a selection of surprise gifts to share amongst our 3 birthday children. As you can imagine, the stack of parcels arriving on the doorstep was met with great excitement all around! The gifts were nicely boxed in colourful boxes and were for the most part well packaged, although the most lightweight of the boxes had sustained a little damage in transit (the contents being unaffected).
Now the kids had the hardest part – having to wait until their birthdays to open them!
What did we get?
Secretly, we were as intrigued as the children to find out what we’d been sent – everyone loves a surprise after all!
The first parcel we opened was a big helium balloon for them to share, with the words ‘Wish Big!’ written on the front. The balloon was very colourful and well received (kids love balloons!). With my sustainable hat on I might question how sensible it is to send something as light as a balloon in a great big box through the post. However, that’s not to say that it wasn’t appreciated by the children.
Next up was a giant bar of chocolate, again for them to share. Who wouldn’t want to receive this in the post?? I don’t see it lasting long in our house!
Each of the 3 of them also received a personal gift, with each having been selected for somebody of their age and gender, as well as on the basis of some hints I’d provided to them. While I don’t necessarily agree with the concept of toys being intended for specific genders in general (why can boys not love pushchairs and dolls and girls cars and diggers?), in our case the presents we received were actually very suitable for who they were intended for.
First up was our 4 year old daughter, Aurora. For her, she’d been sent a cuddly, bean-filled unicorn toy. Like most girls her age, the world seems to revolve around unicorns and mermaids, so that went down very well.
Next was our 2 year old son, Easton. He was sent a toy tractor with removable bolted on sections, along with an electric toy drill to unscrew these bolts. This, it turns out, has been an unbeatable present for him. For a boy who usually cannot concentrate on anything for over 10 seconds, this toy kept his attention for most of the day. He particularly loved the electric drill – walking around all day with it until the batteries inevitably went flat!
Lastly, is our eldest daughter, Savannah, who will be 6 in a couple of days. She has been sent a craft kit for making plaster shapes and then painting them. She loves making things, so I already know she’s going to love this, even before she’s had chance to open it!
What did we think?
Everyone likes getting stuff for free, and we’re no exception. As I said before, although we try to not be too excessive with gift giving for our children (preferring to give them new life experiences instead), we still recognise the value and importance of them having some carefully selected presents of their own to open on their birthdays. It is part of what makes birthdays special, after all.
The kids loved their personalised cards. Getting to see their own photos on printed cards came as a real novelty for them.
The presents that we were kindly gifted from Moonpig.com also didn’t disappoint. The sharing presents were colourful and fun, and the individual presents for each of our children were well selected and appropriate. The tractor for our 2 year old was particularly well received – I don’t think I’ve ever seen him get as excited about anything else before!
Conclusion
For a long time, Moonpig.com have been the internet leaders in providing personalised greeting cards that are great fun to send and receive. Whilst they’re still going strong with this service, their diversification into other gift ideas presents an interesting move for the company. From our experience during this trial, there is a good selection of presents on offer for sale on the website, with the range easily filtered for any intended receiver. All the things that we received arrived punctually, were for the most part well packaged, and were of good quality.
Our children were all very happy with their gifts. If you’re looking for some inspiration for gift ideas of your own, why not take a look at Moonpig.com to see what they have on offer? Being able to purchase both cards and gifts from the same supplier also potentially simplifies and speeds up the present buying process.
While 2020 will always be a year that we remember for all the wrong reasons, I’m pleased to say that we’ve still just about managed to give our children special birthdays to enjoy. Let’s hope birthdays of this kind are a one off though – I think I can safely say that we’d all like to get back to proper parties and celebrations again next year…
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I love personalised cards from MoonPig I think its such a great service. I didn’t realise they did gifts too which is really handy #KCACOLS
I remember buying cards from Moonpig back in the day too, and its not until recently that I noticed that had expanded into all sorts of other gifts. A perfect solution for these times of Covid when we can’t always be with our loved ones but still want them to know we are thinking of them! Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time!
Great review ! I used to buy greeting cards from moon pig. I haven’t shopped with them for a few years so I didn’t know they do gifts! #KCACOLS
I was the same!
These are all look great, I don’t think I realised they did so much! I love a Moonpig card. And I just received one today for our anniversary 🙂 Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time