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19 best luxury Christmas crackers to start your festivities off with a bang
Christmas crackers have come a long way since they were invented in 1847 by sweet-maker Tom Smith. The first ones didn't even snap: they were simply a French bon bon wrapped in pretty paper. From that original ‘cracker’, they have evolved into the Christmas dinner table staple we know today. In fact, a festive table would almost look bare without a selection of the best luxury Christmas crackers adorning it.
One of the greatest joys of Christmas dinner is wearing a paper hat, telling terrible cracker jokes and seeing what gifts and trinkets everyone has found inside their cracker. So, to help everyone experience that quintessential Christmas party moment, we've tracked down the finest party crackers and luxury crackers of 2024.
What are the best Christmas crackers to buy?
The best Christmas cracker to buy depends on whether you're after something a little more high end that will be a Christmas gift in itself, or something of similar price to a stocking filler that just adds a little sparkle to the day. If you're looking for something that's also a great gift, we recommend one of the designer Christmas crackers that contains jewellery or perfume, as these will last longer than perishable things.
| Best Christmas crackers for 2024: | John Lewis Fa-La-La Stripe Christmas Crackers |
|---|---|
| Best luxury Christmas crackers: | Fortnum and Mason Green Velvet Crackers |
| Best Christmas crackers for next level luxury: | Toast Christmas Crackers |
| Best handmade Christmas crackers: | The Fife Arms Luxury Crackers |
| Best fill-your-own Christmas crackers: | Cambridge Imprint Box of Six Crackers |
| Best eco-friendly Christmas crackers: | Forever Crackers Candy Collection Reusable Crackers |
| Best Christmas cracker gifts: | The Fife Arms Luxury Crackers |
| Best Christmas crackers for foodies: | Fortnum and Mason All That Glitters Crackers |
Best Christmas crackers for 2024:
- 1/19
Fa-La-La Stripe Christmas Crackers, set of eight
John Lewis have been producing crackers since 1916, and its design team have a huge archive of gorgeous prints to choose from. Year in, year out, John Lewis's crackers land at the intersection of appeal and affordability. Most of their crackers are sold in sets of six, rather than sets of eight, which means you get more ‘bang’ for your buck. All of John Lewis's crackers are recyclable, including the paper hats and the little jokes inside. Since 2020, they have remained committed to keeping all their crackers plastic free.
After much deliberation, we decided that the 'Fa-La-La Stripe Christmas Crackers' are the pick of the bunch with their charming candy-coloured stripes and cheery vibe. They'll suit every Christmas table from the pared-back to the gaudy, too. Inside, you'll find genuinely useful gifts, like bottle openers, a compact mirror and nail clippers.
- 2/19
Green Velvet Crackers
For true luxury, you can't get better than Fortnum and Mason's Green Velvet Crackers. Papered in F&M's signature colours, these crackers feel really weighty and promising, and stand out from the crowd thanks to their thoughtful contents: a tea towel, tea infuser, tea timer, waiter's friend, Champagne stopper and more. The gold crowns look rather stylish, too.
- 3/19
Merry Christmas Crackers, set of eight
Beautiful, traditional crackers that will add some festivity to any Christmas table. These high-quality crackers have a lovely snap and the gifts, whilst not things that you will treasure forever, are not disposable plastic rubbish. Instead, they're useful metal goods like nail clippers and bottle openers.
- 4/19
Christmas Crackers
Some of this year's most stylish crackers come from high street favourite, Toast. In their signature muted colour palette, these crackers are at once festive and lowkey, finished off with a very smart blue grosgrain ribbon. These particular ones are made of lokta paper–a type of paper made and printed by hand in Kathmandu. We've voted these crackers as top of the ‘best filling’ charts, as the gifts inside are genuinely lovely. There's a a brass leaf decoration, printing block, a lokta paper flower garland and more.
- 5/19
Luxury Christmas Crackers, set of six
For us, Christmas is all about crafting opportunities and these Graham and Green crackers will help ameliorate the season of making. Each cracker is handmade in Dorset out of green and gold paper hand marbled in India, all tied up with a red ribbon.
Along with the prerequisite joke and crown, the crackers each contain a printing block to keep the creative juices flowing long after Christmas. Each block has been individually hand carved in India, meaning no two gifts will be the same–which fits perfectly with my vision of Christmas. Who knows, you might be inspired to make your thank you cards!
- 6/19
Xmas Crackers, set of six
Practical cracker presents are hard to come by, but a delight to unearth. This box of six beautifully hand marbled crackers are made in England by the independent leather makers Undercover and contain samples of their luxury leather goods, which they make using traditional methods. Inside you'll find hand made leather key ring, a bookmark, recycled leather notebook and more. The crackers themselves are all in varying shades of green and are a reassuringly thick paper weight.
- 7/19
Berries Christmas Crackers, set of six
Harrods have brought out a charming selection of Christmas crackers, but it's these ones that caught our eye. A positively festive design is matched by brilliant gifts, including a mini harmonica, ballpoint pen, mini ruler, measuring cup, star keychain, gingerbread man spoon. The cardboard feels weighty, and the velvet ribbons are a smart finishing touch sure to elevate any festive table.
- 8/19
Mistletoe Large Crackers
Emma Bridgewater's designs are instantly recognisable and we have no doubt that these charming Robin-adorned crackers would look great on a Christmas table. At £20 for a set of six, these crackers are on the more affordable end of the spectrum. However, that price belies the luxury feel of them, with their solid weight and nicely printed card finish. Each of the gifts inside is made from wood, helping to improve the crackers sustainability creds–there's no plastic tat here!
- 9/19
Candy Collection Reusable Crackers, set of six
These luxury reusable crackers are made of silk and linen and are designed to be used year after year. They are left empty, so you can put gifts of your choice inside. Pleasingly, the hats are also made from material so are a great counterpoint to the traditional. single use paper ones.
These crackers come with plenty of optional add ons. From a fabric crown to personalisation and pre mixed cocktails, these are surely some of the most special crackers available.
I adore the concept behind these refillable luxury crackers. Paper London founder Kelly Townsend was inspired to create her range of crackers by her mother, who used to make similar homemade refillable versions for her when she was a child. The result was highly personalised (but faff-free) crackers that she could pull out year after year.
Forever Crackers has a big range of colours and schemes, but I love the new-for-this-year Candy Collection: a box of six red and white striped crackers made from luxurious Italian silk and linen that will last you for years’ worth of Christmasses.
Each contains a joke, a banger and a fabric crown (also reusable), but I especially love that they are so customisable that you can add in your own heartfelt message, instead of a lame festive joke, or a personalised gift. And for those who are scared of the sound of crackers - pets and small children, for example - you can take out the bang. Plus there’s no guilt about packaging – it’s all ready to be packed away for next year and used again.
- 10/19
The Fife Arms Luxury Crackers
For those who really value craft – as I do – the set of crackers hand selected for Fife Arms (owned by Iwan and Manuela Wirth, leading international art gallery Hauser & Wirth) are the ones to invest in. The whole of the Fife Arms’ Christmas offering celebrates British, and mostly Scottish, craftspeople, from ornamental wooden sleighs to felted animal decorations. The luxury handmade crackers, which come as a set of six and are presented in a beautiful gift ‘heirloom’ box which can be repurposed to store decorations, follow suit.
Each cracker is decorated in the Fife Arms’ house tartan and contains a horn item, including a egg spoon, key ring, bottle stopper or an olive pick, hand crafted from sustainable red deer antler collected from the estates surrounding the hotel and made by the family McLean of Braemar, based in Braemar in the Cairngorms. Also inside is a Scottish poem by Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns or Lord Byron, chosen to reflect the hotel’s Scottish roots.
- 11/19
A Box of Six Crackers
This kit contains everything you'll need to make 10 pretty Christmas crackers, wrapped in lovely printed paper. Putting these together will be just as fun as pulling them apart, so you can easily make an activity out of it. We recommend filling them with other crafty pieces from The Cambridge Imprint shop to get everything you'll need in a single shop.
We love a bit of Christmas crafting – and find it’s especially useful to have projects up my sleeve to entertain children with. There are lots of DIY crackers you can make, most of which involve saving up toilet rolls for weeks and following Pinterest tutorials. For an easier, yet still crafty option, opt for Cambridge Imprint's set, with its beautiful red patterned papers, snaps and hats and joke cards, which are left blank so you can write your own messages.
The kits contain enough paper to make about ten crackers and come with a matching paper box to store them in. I did find that the high-quality paper means that they take quite a lot of tugging when it comes to pulling them – but really, that just adds to the fun.
- 12/19
Nutcracker Character Medium Cracker, set of six
Nothing says nostalgic Christmas more than the Nutcracker; my daughters love the ballet and so were delighted when I pulled out Meri Meri’s Nutcracker-themed crackers for them.
The set features six different, beautifully illustrated characters, with embellishments from golden crowns to fringed pearlescent crepe paper skirts and paper wings that make the place setting look delightful. Inside there is a joke and gold foil hat, with an an etched wooden Nutcracker character brooch, with a gold tone pin: tasteful and reusable, just how I like my Christmas to be.
- 13/19
Luxury Christmas Crackers
Nothing signals a wonderful table setting more than a set of crackers by Daylesford Organic, all neatly laid out for your guests. This year the brand has commissioned its long time collaborator, the artisan illustrator Nicholas Hughes, to draw a series of jolly animals, based on ones on the farm. Each cracker has a different farm animal - striking a festive pose - adorning the thick green card. They're printed in vegetable ink on recycled paper, and the card is made from recycled materials. My favourite is the pig in his party hat.
As expected, there are no plastic gifts inside, instead you pull to reveal a range of fun toys for all ages inside, including a yo-yo, a star-shaped cutter, a tiny grater (for your Christmas eggnog), a honey dipper, a slinky and a badge. A stylish cracker for your festive spread.
These incredibly charming crackers are from everyone's favourite farm shop, Daylesford. Perfect for the whole family, they'll make the perfect addition to any festive table. Inside, you'll find lovely gifts such as British flower seeds (which are annually flowering, great pollinators and easy to grow on any soil), a children’s wooden beaded bracelet, wooden yoyo and more.
- 14/19
Ivy Crackers with Green Velvet Bow, set of six
Trust the best tablescapers in the business to come up with a range of beautiful Christmas crackers. Choose from their range of seven different crackers, each printed in an iconic Summerill & Bishop pattern–which means maximalists can match their tablecloth to their crackers. Inside, the winner of each cracker will receive a hat, a joke/conversation starter, and a rather mysterious ‘array of unique items’.
How to do Christmas crackers in an eco friendly way
Happily, there are now plenty of ways to be more sustainable with your crackers. Choosing ones made from recycled or recyclable materials is a small effort but makes a big difference to the amount of waste your table decorations cause. If you want to go one step further, reusable Christmas crackers are readily available from a few UK based companies (we particularly love luxury company Forever Crackers). Wrapped in silk and linen, these contain a joke and a banger but are otherwise empty to fill up yourself.
What to put in a 'make-your-own' Christmas cracker set
There are all sorts of lovely goodies you can pop inside a cracker! If you want to make them cohesive, you can opt for a theme. A 'cocktail' theme is always a good choice. You can pop bottle openers, glass straws (though you might want to warn your guests of the filling's fragility) mini spirit bottles and champagne stoppers inside. For more cocktail gift inspiration, head to our guide. Alternatively, you could opt for a ‘baking’ theme, with cookie cutters, mini graters, measuring spoons and other bits of cookery paraphernalia. For more ideas, take a look at our gallery of great gifts for cooks. Remember, you can always bulk up the crackers with sweets or a pretty keyring to make them feel more substantial.
