Crackers, m'lady?

[GlaceCherries]

OH usually gets the Christmas crackers - last minute shopping a few days before Christmas. Usually he gets cheap as chips ones because he doesn't see the point in spending loads on plastic tat.

I'm tired of plastic tat too but also don't want to spend loads - is there a middle ground? What crackers with half-decent "toys" (something that won't break or thrown away after 5 mins) do you get?

I'm tired of magic fishes and plastic combs...

I bought "Fill Yourself" crackers in John Lewis at half term. I don't know if I got a good deal or if there was a pricing glitch but they cost me £2.50

I'm filling them with nice stuff - probably nail varnishes for teen DDs, a lego figure or a small action figure for DS and small smellies for the grown ups. It will probably cost a bit more that buying pre-filled crackers but at least there will be no useless plastic tat.

I've got the Waitrose racing santas crackers this year, entertaining and can be put away with the decorations for next year.

We always buy the full your own kits. Well, one year I made them from scratch but that was an utter waste of time. This year's are from Hobbycraft - £4 for 6.

Lego minifigs, beauty things, spirits minis and lottery tickets are my fallbacks if I can't think of a pressie.

It doesn't matter how much you spend, you will never want cracker crap. My mum once went all Hyacinth Bucket and bought crackers that contained Wade Wimsie figurines. They got binned, obviously.

I buy crackers from Aldi usually. I just want a bang on Christmas Day. Sorry, I really tried hard not to type that.

Yes I am a very un Christmassy soul and do fill your own crackers. We pull them at lunch and the dcs ( teens) have 2 each.
Last year I did silver earrings, a personalised keyring and £20 note in other one.
One year I got diamond earrings in mine from h. As we are divorcing ATM he will probably put a sprout in mine

I usually get the racing Santa/reindeer/sprouts ones. The kids love playing with them. The toys don't last forever but at least they get played with rather than chucked straight away.

I've also done fill your own ones with necklaces/bracelets/toy cars for the kids and scratchcards for adults.

Thank you all. Where else can I get racing toys crackers from? (Don't mind Waitrose, just wondering if there is a choice.)

I cba to fill-my-own, don't have enough Christmassy cheer to stretch to that!

Ooh that's an idea. Nice choccie in 5 crackers and a sprout in the sixth. Cracker Roulette.

We got racing santa ones from Sainsburys last year. As there are only 3 of us for Christmas dinner and they come in a pack of 6, we still have 3 for this year [is aware of how tragic that sounds ] (don't feel too sorry for us though we will see lots of family members on Christmas day and christmas eve and Boxing Day, just not for the actual dinner!)

We got racing penguin ones last year from Aldi we also had 'fancy' ones from Waitrose which were half price the week they got put in store but haven't seen an offer like that this year so it will be Aldi ones. Thr back of thr box was a race track too

I am buying mini ones from m&s this year. They have chocolate in so no tat and only six in a box

Theres a variety of racing crackers in dunelm atm :) can't remember how much but bound to be cheaper than waitrose

I forgot to use ours last year! But I like the plastic tat ones. I'm not planning on keeping any of it, it's just a bit of fun at the dinner table, so what's wrong with some plastic tat, a joke, a paper hat? I'm not into the expensive ones. If you want proper little gifts to keep then that's what stocking fillers are for! Plastic tat for crackers all the way!