What to put in crackers?

Alexandria · 9 October 2007 at 6:25PM

Having fallen in love with the baker ross website I am ordering some of the colour-in cracker kits they currently have on offer (£2 for set to make 6). Has anyone any ideas of little things I can put into the crackers that are cheap but not tacky iyswim?
Thanks

annie123 · 10 October 2007 at 9:48AM

here are loads of ideas
http://www.partybox.co.uk/lootbagfillers.asp

hope it helps

victoriajayne1987 · 10 October 2007 at 10:51AM

when i made mine last year i went to hawkins bazaar. they have lots of little gifts which r fun, useful, practical and fit inside crackers perfectly. usually only like 10-25 p each! worth a look this year

hth

debjk · 10 October 2007 at 12:41PM

I put a scratch card in my crackers last year out of 6 of us only one won

£2 but it was fun I never buy them usually

bonar · 10 October 2007 at 12:45PM

last year I ordered the school photo of my son with the keyring, fridge magnet pack.

so when grandma and granda came round for a meal we put the keyring into the cracker for granda and grandma got a fridge magnet, they absolutely loved it.

GreenNinja · 10 October 2007 at 4:41PM

Hi, I too am making my own crackers this year and am going to do a personal one for each person.
Have been saving little free gifts and so on for a few months now, free samples that you can send off for from the freebies board or free samples on or in magazines.
You can buy those mini green and blacks bars of chocolate as well, which make a lovely little luxury gift inside a cracker.

earthmother · 10 October 2007 at 6:12PM

We made crackers last year - it took me ages to get everything together, but I'm one of those people who likes trawling ebay and the such, lol.

I bought a set of Christmas Mini Winnies from Firebox, using a £5 voucher (that are always around) they worked out at 89p each (less Quidco), and very cute. I can't see them on there at the moment, but they are here - http://www.prezzybox.com/products/index.aspx?pid=3765

Other things I used were small badges/zip pulls/keyrings (check the charity boxes on bank counters - Lloyds have Maisy at the moment, and Halifax/BoS will have Fraggle Rock in November - don't know who anyone else has. Ebay is also good for these if you want a specific subject.

Then you have traditional bits - plastic jewellery, mini playing cards etc - party bag suppliers are a good place for those.

We bought hats and cracker snaps, and printed off our own jokes, popped in a christmassy balloon, and decorated the crackers with stickers (Wilkinsons were cheapest for 'kiddy' holographic stickers - and good enough to put in the cracker too), gold thread and glitter.

Each 'standard' cracker (22 in all) came in at about 97p each, and then I made three 'specials' at about £3.50 each (better gifts) for OH, Mum & Dad.

seashore321 · 11 October 2007 at 11:17AM

We put miniature spirit bottles in them, whisky, gin, baileys etc. Ideal for the men. For the older ladies, I buy lace hankies, easily found in charity shops etc, usually only 25p each and you can get some lovely ones.
I also photocopied some sudoku's on to computer paper and popped one in each cracker. You can also do this with crosswords, wordsearches etc. (remember to keep the answers somewhere just in case).

Individual chocolates can be nice but wrap them in tin foil or cellophae and remember to keep them away from heat!!

C_J · 11 October 2007 at 1:38PM

I've always done my own Christmas crackers. When my daughters were pre-teens, I used to buy one or two of those 'lucky bags' from Claire's Accessories as they always had good things to split between Christmas crackers (and also handy for party bag fillers too).

I always put a lottery ticket in them. Last year I got a couple of miniature fragrance bottles quite cheaply on ebay, but I guess you could ask nicely for samples from the perfume counters too

I find it harder to find Christmas cracker fillers for my husband and father-in-law ...... last year my husband was due to go on a skiing trip with work in January, so I put a ski sun-block stick in his cracker, and I found one of those mini screwdriver sets for repairing glasses for my father-in-law. I think I got that from poundland!

Maybe a wine bottle stopper? Fridge magnet? Key ring? Nail polish? Small sachets of computer screen wipes? Mobile phone charms? (make your own with some cord and a few beads!), sheets of stickers for the kids?

I *love* the photocopied sudoku puzzle idea, seashore!

saverspud · 11 October 2007 at 1:52PM

Hi

If you have anyone ourdoors-y, Oswald Bailey is good for little bits and bobs for not much at all. I also use Evolution quite a lot - they do a nice range of odds and ends for under £2. Museum shops are also quite good at low cost little things that don't look cheap. I once gave my OH some earings in a lovely little box from the V&A shop - not realising until it was opened in front of my family that it looked suspiciously like a 'surprise engagement' type thing. I got a very dirty look, followed by a look of sheer relief - I'd never get forgiven for doing something like that in front of my folks!

I also found some cheap but nice cufflinks from ebay that went down very well with my brothers.

Loving the photocopied puzzles idea too, and the mini Green and Blacks bars. I think that my crackers might be a bit pumped up this year!

S

C_J · 11 October 2007 at 1:57PM

'Surprise engagement' made me laugh

I have to confess that I sometimes cheat with the home-made crackers - I buy some in the January sales v cheaply, then tease them open and add my own gifts to them before re-tying them and tarting them up a bit with my own decorations. I bought a box of 12 quite nice crackers back in January for only £1 .... all I have to do now is remember exactly where I put them! I really do need to do an inventory of everything I've hidden up in the loft!

What to put in crackers?

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