11 best Christmas crackers 2022: Kick off the festivities with a bang
Christmas crackers must be the ultimate table decoration, right? It would seem no festive tablescape is complete without them. Right now, we have more choice than ever before when it comes to choosing crackers that friends and family will enjoy.
Yet, as with so much of our shopping habits today, it’s important to keep in mind the sustainability of your purchase. Christmas crackers have long been associated with creating unnecessary waste, thanks to years of throwaway trinkets, sub-par jokes and plastic packaging that so often ends up in landfill.
Thankfully, times have moved on and Christmas crackers are now as varied and exciting as advent calendars, featuring everything from sweet treats and beauty gifts to tasty tipples and more unusual gifts. Many brands have also focused on reducing their plastic use, using only recycled card and other recyclable or compostable materials.
You’ll find most of the designs on our list come in boxes of six, so, before making your purchase, it’s worth keeping in mind how many people you plan to have around the dinner table.
You should also take into consideration the look and feel of the rest of your décor, and which designs will best fit your festive theme.
How we tested
We selected our favourite designs from a whole range of brands, covering a wide variety of price points. So, whether you want a luxury showstopper of a cracker or something a little more affordable, there’s an option on this list for you.
We looked closely at everything from the packaging and the price to the “snap” and the sustainability of the design and materials, as well as the contents, to ensure there weren’t any disappointing surprises. Only the best designs made it onto the list – all so you can have a cracker of a Christmas (pun fully intended).
The best Christmas crackers for 2022 are:
Best overall Christmas crackers – Workshop Christmas cracker kraft set of six, personalisable: £60, Theconscious.co.uk
Best Christmas crackers for luxury gifts – Rockett St George monochrome luxury Christmas crackers: £45, Rockettstgeorge.co.uk
Best Christmas crackers for adult festivities – Sipsmith four Christmas gin crackers: £16, Sipsmith.com
Best Christmas crackers for chocolate lovers – Melt London chocolate Christmas crackers: £49, Meltchocolates.com
Best Christmas crackers for foodies – Sous Chef set of six world spice crackers: £48, Souschef.co.uk
Best Christmas crackers for classic nostalgia – Emma Bridgewater Christmas celebration crackers: £20, Emmabridgewater.co.uk
Best miniature Christmas crackers – Hotel Chocolat mini chocolate Christmas crackers: £18.99, Very.co.uk
Best Christmas crackers for kids – Meri Meri Christmas character large crackers: £30, Merimeri.co.uk
Best Christmas crackers for jokes – Advent of Change charity Christmas crackers: £25.95, Adventofchange.com
Best Christmas crackers for beauty fans – L’Occitane festive crackers collection: £22.50, Loccitane.com
Best DIY crackers – Personalised hand-lettered eco Christmas crackers: £3, Amazon.co.uk
Workshop Christmas cracker kraft set of six, personalisable
Choosing to have a more planet-friendly Christmas doesn’t mean having to compromise on style, as these colourful kraft crackers from sustainable lifestyle brand Workshop prove. Each design can be personalised when purchasing, so they’re great for punctuating the table as vibrant place settings, too.
While some Christmas cracker designs are limited to just adults or just kids, these are perfect for the whole family. Each one contains a matchstick puzzle (guaranteed to keep guests occupied, for a little while, at least), a tiny Tony’s Chocolonely treat, plus the usual festive hat and joke.
Naturally, everything is recyclable and handmade in the UK, too. These crackers also delivered the most satisfying snap of all the designs we tried.
Buy now £60.00, Theconscious.co.uk
Rockett St George monochrome luxury Christmas crackers
These chic-as-hell designs from Rockett St George not only take luxury gifting to the next level, they’re a must-buy if you want your table to look truly on trend this year. We’d even go as far as saying these luxury crackers are works of art – they come in five different designs (the contents are the same across the board), but we especially loved this monochrome palette for a stylish and eclectic tablescape.
The inspired RSG gifts packaged inside include a cheeky slogan make-up pouch, a luxury silk eye mask, a luggage tag and more – and, quite frankly, we’d be happy with any of them.
Buy now £45.00, Rockettstgeorge.co.uk
Sipsmith four Christmas gin crackers
What better way to get the celebrations started than with a tipple or two? This fun selection of crackers from distillery giant Sipsmith is perfect for friends and family who want a little more than a keyring or puzzle.
The enclosed drinks make great accompaniments to a festive meal (be sure to have some tonic water to hand) or as the main ingredient for Christmas cocktails. The set includes a miniature bottle of London dry gin (for the purists), a zesty orange gin, a lemon-drizzle gin, and a sloe gin for the berry-obsessed sippers – plus a juniper-inspired joke, naturally.
Sipsmith has also enclosed a number of golden tickets within certain packs, giving you the chance to win a whole host of gin-inspired prizes this festive season.
Buy now £16.00, Sipsmith.com
Melt London chocolate Christmas crackers
If you’re hosting a party of chocoholics, you can’t go wrong with these beautifully indulgent crackers by Melt London, a boutique chocolatier located in London’s hip Notting Hill. Each one contains a trio of individually wrapped handmade truffles – a dark soft-centred gianduja bonbon, a Christmas-spiced milk chocolate, and a white chocolate with cranberry truffle, alongside a hat and a motto. Our personal favourite was the Christmas-spiced milk chocolate truffle, but all are guaranteed to stir up a series of “Oohs” and “Mmms” from your dinner guests.
If we’re being especially picky, we weren’t huge fans of the packaging, but we do love that it’s completely plastic-free and recyclable, and the contents make them more than worth it. The perfect after-dinner treat.
Buy now £49.00, Meltchocolates.com
Sous Chef set of six world spice crackers
Keen cooks, look no further than these high-quality crackers from Sous Chef, which each contain a different pot of spice mix from around the globe, a funny food-themed Christmas joke and a QR code that links to a recipe for the spice when you’re ready to cook with it.
We don’t want to spoil the surprise, because these crackers really are rather wonderful if you’re someone who likes to experiment in the kitchen, but expect six very different spice mixes – from Middle Eastern and Indian flavours to Italian, North African and more. The recipes include a mix of fish, meat and vegan-friendly, so there’ll be one in every cracker to suit every type of diet.
The crackers themselves feel luxurious, as they’re made from high-quality printed card and are finished with grosgrain ribbon. The contents mean they feel quite weighty, too. A great option if you’re looking for something a bit different.
Buy now £48.00, Souschef.co.uk
Emma Bridgewater Christmas celebration crackers
If you’re a fan of a classic Christmas tablescape, these traditional-with-a-twist designs from Emma Bridgewater are perfect. Not only are they beautifully crafted and available in a choice of two festive prints, they get bonus points for being completely plastic-free and recyclable.
Inside each cracker, you’ll find a joke, hat and a novelty wooden trinket that you might actually get some use out of, such as golf tees, dice, a honey spoon and more.
For the price point (around £3.30 per cracker), they feel excellent quality, with ribbon-tie details and a good snap.
Buy now £20.00, Emmabridgewater.co.uk
Hotel Chocolat mini chocolate Christmas crackers
Not enough space on the table for large Christmas crackers? These miniature versions from the well-loved high-street chocolatier make the perfect sweet favour and come in a handy pack of 10. With a “Reserved for” label on each one (blank, of course, for personalisation), they make great place settings too. Or, you might just want to use them to jazz up your Christmas tree.
There’s no paper hat, corny joke or snap, but each cracker does hide an individually wrapped gourmet treat – expect to find some of Hotel Chocolat’s signature flavours, including the pecan praline, billionaire’s shortbread, salted caramel and caramel cheesecake. That’s got to be better than another useless keyring, right?
Buy now £18.99, Very.co.uk
Meri Meri Christmas character large crackers
If you’re looking for a selection of colourful, family-friendly options, turn your attention to Meri Meri, which has a huge range of Christmas crackers designed to appeal to kids and adults alike. Our favourite for younger guests has to be these happy Santa and smiling reindeer designs, each one beautifully embellished with velvet ribbons and gold foil. The detail really is exquisite, and they’re also of a good size, so in terms of getting what you pay for, these are great value.
As well as looking great on the table, each one contains a fun eraser (choose from an alpaca, turtle, parrot, mushroom, bunch of cherries or butterfly), a paper hat and a joke for classic Christmas lols around the table.
Buy now £30.00, Merimeri.co.uk
Advent of Change charity Christmas crackers
What is Christmas dinner without a few groan-inducing jokes around the table? Cue these laugh-out-loud designs from award-winning social enterprise Advent of Change, which donates £2 to charity for every cracker sold, supporting the likes of Marie Curie, The Children’s Trust, Surfers Against Sewage and 21 others.
You won’t find any novelty gifts inside, but the jokes have been written by celebrities, including some of comedy’s biggest names, such as Harry Hill and Joanna Lumley. You’ll also find a paper hat (of course) and a cardboard bauble outlining which charity your purchase has supported, with details on how your donation is making a difference.
The crackers are completely plastic-free, and every element is either recyclable or compostable – you can even repurpose the paper ribbon on the cracker to hang it on your tree.
Buy now £25.95, Adventofchange.com
L’Occitane festive crackers collection
Without doubt, some of the most sought-after crackers of 2022 are those of the beauty variety. Whether you want a cracker to gift each dinner guest or some Secret Santa inspiration to place under the tree, beauty crackers swiftly sell out every year.
Our favourites for 2022? It must be this set of four from L’Occitane. Tucked inside each of these vibrant miniatures is a different scented duo of shower gels and hand creams from the brand’s cherry blossom, shea, almond and verbena ranges. French label L’Occitane has long been synonymous with luxury, and – for the price point – these are brilliant value if you’re hosting a group of beauty lovers. In fact, we don’t know anyone who wouldn’t appreciate one.
Buy now £22.50, Loccitane.com
Personalised hand lettered eco Christmas crackers
For a truly bespoke touch to your festive tablescape, these eco-friendly fill-your-own crackers available via Amazon Handmade arrive flat-packed, ready for you to make yourself. Each one can be personalised, and you have a choice of three colours. We went for the kraft-brown colour with white lettering – and the personalised calligraphy was a beautiful touch.
In your box, you’ll get everything you need to make your crackers – a snap, a high-quality paper hat (no flimsy tissue paper here), a joke, some paper string and detailed instructions. The only thing not supplied is a gift, which means you can get super creative with your options.
Building them was a little bit fiddly at first – and we weren’t sure that some of the pre-cut slits were quite big enough for the tabs. That said, for the quality of the materials, the price point and how enjoyable they were to make, we can forgive that, especially as every element is recyclable.
Buy now £3.00, Amazon.co.uk
The verdict: Best Christmas crackers
Since crackers are such a personal purchase, it’s difficult to truly pick a favourite from all the brands we tried. The bright and colourful designs from Workshop are wonderful if you’re looking for an eco-friendly option and gifts that will both entertain and delight, earning it the number-one spot. A super-close runner-up is Rockett St George – as its crackers are a real treat for VIPs and super-stylish tables. And firm foodies should check out the options from both Sous Chef and Melt London.
Get into the spirit with our guide to this year’s beauty advent calendars for Christmas
