Who buys posh crackers?

[evilharpy]

This is not intended to be goady - you'll never find me on Style & Beauty being arsey about people spending £2k+ on a handbag, and I have boxes full of overpriced Christmas decorations that come out year after year. I'm just genuinely confused on who buys posh Christmas crackers with slightly less crappy but still crappy prizes.

Examples here and here. Now obviously they are a bit nicer than the usual plastic tat you get in a box of crackers from Tesco, but apart from possibly the mini jar of jam, which will last till breakfast the next day, I can't imagine any of these prizes will be kept and treasured beyond the end of Christmas dinner. I could sort of understand it if it was something edible like fancy truffles, or something consumable like make up, or even a set of wind up racing Santas which we had one year (they were shit, they either went in circles or threw themselves off the edge of the table). And far less entertaining than a plastic fortune telling fish.

Does anyone here actually buy these?

I bought some gorgeous fabric reusables a few years back. Each one is personalised to the recipient

But that's the second best bit ! Paper hats and jokes being joint first

1k and still full of shite!

Since plastic was banned you can't really get decent ones unless you spend a good amount.

Last year I got a make your own kit from The Works and I put a couple of chocs (celebrations, roses etc) and a scratchcard inside them. They went down really well. Top prize was a fiver but I was relieved no one won the jackpot as it could have torn the family apart lol.

These look great!

But people should be warned, you are unable to buy them online due to the Offensive Weapons Act 2019.

Ha ha! My ADHD addled brain means I will do anything and everything except what I actually need to do urgently. My presents are all bought and mostly wrapped and I spent all of last weekend perfecting my wrapping and bow tying techniques.

We have started making our own - add a scratch card for a laugh! Like the alcohol minis idea - will try that. I have never spent more than £12 on a box of crackers and cannot say that anything in them was ever treasured - although the fortune telling fish were always squabbled over ( maybe il get one for each cracker this year!). No plans to invest in any of these luxury ones here! Good idea to whoever asks one of the guests to bring crackers - easy thing to get !

I’ve completely changed my stance on this over the years - used to buy expensive ones but now see things a bit more clearly and buy cheap ones from Aldi that look nice! We buy little table gifts (a nice chocolate, small puzzle, maybe a nice lip balm or similar small item) in a pretty bag with a few little things in and a lottery scratch card for fun too! Prob costs about the same but way nicer!!

I’ve completely changed my stance on this over the years - used to buy expensive ones but now see things a bit more clearly and buy cheap ones from Aldi that look nice! We buy little table gifts (a nice chocolate, small puzzle, maybe a nice lip balm or similar small item) in a pretty bag with a few little things in and a lottery scratch card for fun too! Prob costs about the same but way nicer!!

The rspb ones were great. The badges were really cute and good quality. Family wire them all Christmas. A winner for us!

I generally get crackers with a fun element ie racing reindeer’s that have a wind up toy with a race mat . Spend about £20 .

I absolutely love crackers - they are one of my favourite things about Christmas, but in recent years they are a shadow of their former selves - no glitter, no fun presents. I did indulge in froufrouandthomas crackers for a couple of years but I don't want to fill crackers myself.

I came on to say I like carr’s cheese melts 🤷🏼‍♀️

I love the smell of crackers. I like finding the hat and the joke and the mini grater/ fortune telling fish on the floor. They are environmentally awful but I secretly like them.

I got the wrendale ones last year, they had lovely magnets in them and my mum absolutely adored them. They were pricier than usual, but I felt it was worth it! We still have the magnets up, I have a little one on my fireplace 🥰.

I did make up the numbers with cheap home bargains one though, because I knew DH and my grandad would absolutely not care about them 🤣🤣

I like the idea of the rspb ones this year.

but...surely this defeats the whole point of crackers which is the person who wins the pull gets the prize?
You're just wrapping an additional present up in packaging that makes a noise!

Also can someone tell me what the three little pieces of wood are supposed to be for in the crackers OP linked? Start of a very small fence? Staking a baby vampire?

I started making my own when crackers became difficult to find here in the US. DH grew up in England and it just wouldn’t be Christmas, etc. etc. We used to travel to the UK every other autumn and bring enough crackers back to last a few years, then for a while TJ (TK) Maxx stocked the Tom Smith ones, but no longer.

Etsy is a great place to buy the snaps and the toys/gifts.

The first time I made crackers, I put boozy miniatures in for the adults, but those little glass bottles really flew (cracked an antique Spode plate sobbb).

I think they’re kind of fun to make, but I need to work on the hats.

My DH.l! If it was left to me I would be happy with cheap crackers from the pound shop but h likes insists them to look good, they should match our theme and have good gifts inside. Seems a bit crazy considering the guests usually forget to bring them home. Having said that it is good that one of us has such enthusiasm for Christmas. I enjoy it when it arrives but too much fuss.

Yes, we had the musical crackers once. Took it in turns to be the conductor and kept the whistles for a few years.

Once my DS broke his glasses as we were about to set off for school. Found the remains of a box of crackers and we quickly pulled them until we got the set of screwdrivers.

I’ve not clicked on the link but surely they’re golf pegs

I’ve looked now and see what you mean!!!
I think they’re plant labels.

I see your title and came to tell you we just have Jacobs 🤣🤣 but Christmas crackers no we have the sort where the hat rips the second you put it on your head and that fortune telling fish doesn't work and the joke is something like why are snowmen so popular? ..... because they are always cool. But I wouldn't change it for the world its tradition

I use the tiny cheese grater, for nutmeg.
The best crackers I ever bought though had wooden nutcracker figures which I still put on the tree (as do the other guests who got them)

I accidentally spent £40 on two boxes of crackers once (I thought it was £20 for 12, which was bad enough, but I was doing a themed table to match my MiLs obsession with nutcrackers, and then I had to bite the bullet and buy another box as it was actually £20 for six and there were 11 of us) and then we ended up cancelling due to a serious illness. I had personally engraved wine glasses, embroidered napkins, a handmade garland, the lot, but I’d done all those myself with stuff I already had, so it didn’t cost anything. The angst I had over spending £40 on table crackers was unsurpassed. Every year, DH crosses crackers off the list, but I’m holding onto them for another two years, which will be the next time we go for Christmas, and she’s going to get a table decorated to within an inch of its life. And if I don’t get 11 very appreciative cracker pullers, then I’m taking them back and replacing them with one from Home Bargains.

We normally get the cheapest box I can find. I want a hat, a crap joke and a fortune telling fish, wrapped up in a bit of shiny paper with a reasonable bang when I pull it. And I’m not spending more than a tenner for 12.