Ponce my crackers

[PoliticalBiscuit]

I've just spent about an hour looking for nice Christmas Crackers that aren't £200 for the table or filled with shit.

Has anyone made their own? Not actually set my table theme yet but likely to be rustic red as I will be using my red napkins and will try and decorate wood slices for each table setting.

Anyway, any ideas on whether to make from scratch or buy them ready to be filled? I was most tempted by a magic set but the outside of them were a bit weak.

Any ideas for fillers to put in them? I'm thinking for example -

copper cookie cutters
enamel pins
little liqueurs
small magic tricks

You know you've officially gone Full Christmas when you are thinking you will have to make your own crackers to get them just right

Go to b&m, when they get their crackers in. They are really lovely, expensive and have decent gifts. I open them carefully, add fancy, tiny gifts/sweets and reseal.

I make my own crackers most years. The kits are brilliant.

Last year the adults got a miniature of gin each, a posh chocolate and then the women got earrings and the men got fake pull on tattoo sleeves.

The kids got chocolates and finger puppets.

Crackers are treated like an extra present in our house though and each is labelled with the owners name so the presents can be personalized.

Sorry, I meant, home bargains, but I’d say b&m would be similar. If you wander around Debenhams, you can ask for samples, from the makeup counters.

Thanks both - PERF I'll definitely have a look.

@Si1ver where do you get your kits from?

I know what you mean about crackers being an extra present, that's definitely how I view them. Life is too short for cheap crackers.

@PoliticalBiscuit anywhere on the internet that looks nice really and that matches the colour theme for the year.

Hobbycraft have some nice looking kits in this year.

If you can't get anything that you can customise then you can buy empty crackers from House of Crackers and ponce them up. These come ready assembled but unfilled or you can buy a kit from Amazon and make them from scratch.

I've done fill your own crackers for the last three years after getting fed up of paying a fortune for rubbish. Fillings have included chocolates, alcohol miniatures, nail polish, key rings and novelty usb sticks. I try to keep to consumables and also only buy non-foiled crackers so they can go into the recycling.

I’m going very eco this year and making my own from the thick brown paper inside rolls of gift wrap. I’m going to decorate them with jute string, larch cones and add sprigs of rosemary when I’m setting the table.

Brown paper might work with the rustic aspect of your table scheme but any heavyish paper will work fine. Wallpaper might be good. Or if it’s too thick to pull apart you could cut strips and glue them over a plain basic cracker.

The actual shape that you cut out is simple enough. Getting the cracker strips is a bit trickier and probably a good reason for buying a kit

I made my own last year. Got kits from M&S - you could write your names on tags - and filled with teabags for my dad!!; little hands and music box for the kids; Clarins lipsalve and Nuxe oil for my mum and work colleagues. The samples you get from Clarins, Clinque etc fit in there nicely!!

We always get crackers from Oxfam. They do really nice ones!

I always buy make your own crackers and fill them myself. I've bought as-big-as-possible ones so that there is more room in the tube. I think they were from Go Crackers, and they were white and silver. They come with a snap, joke and a hat. In it, I put a lottery scratchcard, miniature shower gel/body moisturiser/hand cream (usually Molton Brown, they sell their set of 12 miniatures with 25% in the run up to Christmas, but you can buy miniature bottles of perfume and things online) and a handful of celebrations. The DC usually get a toy car or train or something like that.

Yes I've done fill my own for the past couple of years. Bought John Lewis ones in the sale, got some nice Hobbycraft ones last year.

Ideas for fillings: scratch card/lottery card, miniature booze, hand cream, lip balm (or any other beauty miniature), magnetic bookmarks.

For son: hot wheel car, Lego mini figure, stickers. Kids are easy TBH.