Bloody Christmas Crackers

[GlamorousHeifer]

I am driving myself mad (admittedly a short drive!) over Christmas crackers of all things!
I must have been looking online researching my options for about 8+ hours (in total, not 8 straight hours, I'm not that crazy!) but none of them are quite right.
Must be:
*Plastic free
*Beautiful
*8 pack
*Pre made, not make yourself
*Decent gift (no toe nail clippers or tiny screwdrivers!) Ideally a keepsake.
*Suitable for teen boys and girls
*Not more than £25.
Aibu to believe the crackers of my dreams exist despite an extensive search coming up with nothing?
For those that need to hear it, this is lighthearted, yes I do have plenty of other things to worry about, yes I know the COL has gone up and some people won't be able to celebrate at all etc etc.

We were given some fill your own ones last year and never used them, so I have bought some scratch cards (all adults here too) so we shall see if anyone is lucky 🤞

@DutifulLark I’ve just googled them - they look great fun.
How rude of your guests not to join in - I hope you haven’t got to have them this year.

I use mine for nutmeg and it's really very good at grating lemon or lime zest

time, hands, too much

You're asking a lot for £3 per cracker. What keepsake will be worth having at that price?

Last year I ordered some beautiful luxury xmas crackers from Amazon. They took ages to arrive. And in fact we never received them until well after Christmas. So, I haven't had to bother to buy them this year as I have the crackers I ordered for last year. Not at all helpful to you. And, on reflection, quite a boring post. Sorry.

Can you not just have a little favour instead?

Apparently you can make/fill your own if you can be bothered

I bought origami ones last year, they all have a simple small origami thing inside you make (birds and such). They looked surprisingly impressive once made, so even the people who didn't want to do them themselves had someone else make theirs for them. Something to do and not cheesy. And if they don't like them they're just paper so you can recycle them.

I've got a lipstick case with a tiny mirror inside which I've had for years - it's still going strong and it's so useful . I think it was from a posh Harrods cracker.

Lakeland are the only ones with decent gifts (wooden games) but why 8 hours?! Who cares enough about bloody crackers!?

I love the smell of them, I'd be very disappointed to have to go without!

@GlamorousHeifer

you're tough to please!

please provide links to ones with small screw driver set! They're perfect for my craft needs and my old set is almost dead. I've been looking for crackers with them in, to no avail!

I know it’s not the point of this thread…

But a lottery scratch card is the worst gift I can imagine.
At best, it’s a piece of cardboard. At worst, I might win…

Probably a drop in the ocean, but there is a 15% off discount offered on the website...

Ordered the RSPB crackers - I love pin badges so perfect for me! Thanks for sharing.

Waitrose is as fancy as I get. I think they're brilliant.

There's no information at all what's inside them, is there?

There's a picture upthread of the nutcracker toys inside those crackers.

You won’t get ‘keepsake’ gifts if you’re only spending £25 on an 8 pack. That’s just over £3 a cracker. I reckon for a decent present, you’d be looking at £10-15 plus per cracker. We don’t even bother with them anymore tbh.

If you want something a bit different, you’ve probably still got time to get little gifts from Etsy and use them as ‘favours’ as an alternative to crackers.

Glad you found your crackers @GlamorousHeifer . Also good to know I’m not the only one who gets obsessed with what crackers to buy ! I’ve had the Sophie Allport ones before and I shamelessly gathered in all the little polar bears while no one was looking. 😆
I can’t do links but if you haven’t already , take a look at Fortnum and Masons cracker selection . They fit your brief beautifully other than costing up to a grand a box .I’ve resorted to Etsy and filling my own . I’m not looking forward to fiddling about putting them together but I don’t have a grand spare to drop on Crackers at Fortnum and Masons . 😆

We had the wind up Santas and reindeer, they were so much fun! Robust too. They came out every year until they were finally passed on to our local preschool

I assume these are over budget?

https://www.fortnumandmason.com/the-regal-crackers-set-of-6

Yes remember crackers containing Wade Whimsies, my late mother had quite a collection.

The best we've ever had contained little whistles that each played a single note. Once we'd all opened them there was music to play with them, with my very merry DH pointing to each person in turn to add their whistle to the tune. It was hilarious, my 80 year old mother laughed so much that she fell off the chair and my children loved them too.

When I was a child we had these, and I think that there was a version with a handmade glass animal in them too. Not too good for teens though!