Christmas cracker gift ideas please

[silver28]

I am hosting christmas dinner for the first time this year and fancy making my own crackers. I have ordered some 'fill your own' ones from M&S but am now stuck for ideas for gifts to put inside, so wondered if anyone could please inspire me?!

I am making them for DS (2.7) (i suppose i should be able to find something for him quite easily, eg toy car), nieces aged 4 and 12, DH, DSis and DBiL. I want to spend about £2-5 on each gift (pref about £2 but will spend a bit more to get something right).

I know that the whole point is to make the personal and therefore i shouldn't be asking a bunch of strangers to help, but thought that i might get some good ideas from mumsnet to get me started. I have no problem thinking of low value items that would make nice/silly gifts for these people, but when limited to fitting the gift inside a cracker it gets a bit harder.

Sorry to post and run but think i will be off to bed soon, but will be back in the morning.

Thanks in advance.

Jewelery/ hair clips/ bobbles/ magic flannels/ for DN's.

Miniature bottles wine/spirits
Lotto tickets/scratch cards
Mini bottles of hand lotion/bubble bath/mens stuff.

Hmm, will think some more. I find the children easier! I have made a Christmas pass the parcel for mine and my sister's children. The gifts could be a bit bigger than a cracker though.

Luxury chocs (like thorntons individual chocs which fit fine in crackers)

If keen gardeners packets of seeds

nail polish, lip balm/gloss

seeds eg here

Fancy rubber gloves with fur/jewels round the cuff

Thanks for the suggestions. Think I might take a trip to boots for travel sized smellies. Scratchcards are a good idea too. And seeds. Am feeling suitably inspired!

Healthyelfy, that website is amazing, am going to buy some little puzzles from there too, to keep people occupied while I'm serving dinner.

I have sometimes bought those little wind-up toys which then walk along/turn somersaults. Small enough to fit, and not expensive. You can usually get them in places like Hawkins Bazaar.

Other ideas - pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners? Small packs of paper clips etc...

:o I have used them at Christmas for three years now and they have been reliable. If something isnt in stock they will phone you up.

You could also put a balloon and a party blower in the crackers.

I did these last year. For the women, I put hand cream travel sized tubes from the body shop, I think hemp was one of them, and small bottles of bubbles again from the body shop. For the men, I bought small bars of chocolate from the christmas collection in hotel chocolat. They each fitted fine in john lewis make your own crackers. I think I will do similar this year too.

Small perfume "sample" bottles are good. You can get them for men too.

Indoor fireworks can be fun. Keeps people entertained too.

Vouchers, if they're paper. The credit card size ones don't fit properly.

Earrings or similar for the 12 year old?

Batteries for a present that needs them?!

I do lotto scratch cards in ours x

Is anyone outdoorsy? I've got one of these to put in dp's cracker this year. I'm putting Schleich animals in for the dds.

Im doing the Crackers this year too!

for the men I have miniature bottle spirit/ mini aftershave/chocolates
the ladies have mini lip gloss/nail varnish/sparkly stud earings/bracelet
Children have got a Christmas balloon/ chocolate/ tattoos/ and mini pens

I think I might have to pop in some scratchcard too, I was thinking of doing a small quiz and put a Christmas themed question in everyones crackers too and if they get it right they get an extra choccie!!

Quick question - if you make crackers do you make one for yourself too? I'm thinking that I will, with a carefully picked pressie for myself in, is that weird?

I'll probably do it anyway, but I'd like to know how odd I'm being.

Im giving my sister a spare one to do for me x

Christmas crackers really depress me as even expensive ones contain stuff nobody wants ... So wasteful and disappointing! So I came up with an idea to make them about fun for all the family rather than yet another gift. I'm putting in a stick-on moustache plus some things to customise the party hat - stickers and glitter pen. If there's room, I'll put in a fun thing such as a party popper, rocket balloon or comet ball to liven things up. Everyone can wear their lovely hat and moustache and make a mess/noise.

I made some from scratch this year, I have filled the ones for the women with a moisturiser sample, handpicked Did You Know facts and handpicked jokes. I also put in teabags, as on teapigs you can buy 12 different tea bags each with two tea bags, each person has an individually chosen tea, whilst the younger ones have hot chocolate powder and my dad has coffee beans from Bettys but only a small amount. this way everyone has something of the same price.

I am under 18 so technically can't buy miniature alcohols but I think it would be a nice idea as well or instead for the young adults who don't drink tea or coffee.