21 of the best Christmas crackers for your dinner table (including chic, luxury Christmas crackers, too)
Alongside presents, Christmas crackers are one of the first things that come to mind when we think of Christmas. Decorating your artificial tree with the best Christmas decorations and tree toppers, hanging your stylish Christmas stocking from the mantle and wrapping the best Christmas gifts and placing them beneath bauble-adorned branches. For me, these are all favourite Christmas pastimes – but sitting down at the table for that much-anticipated roast dinner and pulling open some of the best luxury Christmas crackers is the cherry atop the merry cake.
This year, as well as the usual recyclable designs I buy for all the festive dinner parties I plan on hosting, I’m on the hunt for some chic, eco-friendly Christmas crackers that I can reuse year after year. Think about it: you could fill them with little trinkets you know your guests will actually use and appreciate, rather than tiny screwdrivers or naff jokes.
Buying the best Christmas crackers may not be top of your list this year with things like gifts for dads, unusual gifts and Christmas hampers to source first. You’re probably eyeing up the best beauty advent calendars 2022 to treat yourself with, and all the Christmas wreaths you’ll want to dot about the house too, but Christmas crackers are the one small tradition you won’t want to miss out on when it comes to the big day.
Which Christmas crackers are the best?
Did you know that Christmas crackers originate from England? Some countries don’t even have them, so it’s only right that we sell the best.
- Best overall - Set Of Six Luxury Shagreen Crackers, £95, Oka
- Best for families - NANCY & BETTY Nutcracker Story Christmas Crackers, £49.95, Liberty
- Best for adults - Fever-Tree Ultimate Spirits & Mixers Crackers, £34, John Lewis
- Best ultra luxury - Regency Regalia Christmas Crackers, £129, Harrods
- Best reusable - Fortnum's x Forever Crackers Reusable Christmas Crackers, £85, Fortnum & Mason
Ready to feel merry? Scroll down and get the best Christmas crackers here.
Straight from one of London's most iconic department stores, these luxury Christmas crackers are not only adorned with 1920s-style lettering and flamboyant bows, but contain gifts for the whole family, and ones for adults that will actually get used, too.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: Blackcurrant jam, damson gin liqueur, a Champagne stopper, a tin of mints and, for the kids, a wooden whistle and a slinky spring. All crackers include a paper crown and a joke.
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The Nutcracker story is a Christmas classic, so why wouldn't we want the mice, soldiers and, of course, Clara to join us at our Christmas dinner table this year. You'll get useful mini presents that kids and adults will be happy with, and they're relatively reasonably priced as luxury crackers go.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: Six items from the following options - wooden honey drizzler, nutmeg grater, wooden plant labels, metal slinky, a wooden yoyo, faux leather keyring, wooden comb, washi tape, cookie cutter and/or mini strawberry jam. All Nancy & Betty crackers contain a silver crown and a joke.
Save money on crackers for your Christmas table in 2022 with these Liberty discounts
Make up Christmas crackers are the gift that keeps on giving - yes, it might cost you a little bit more to accumulate six crackers for your gals' Christmas party, but it'll still cost you less than some of the more high-end cracker sets (for instance F&M) and your guests will get to take home a gift box of things they actually want.
- Number of crackers: One.
- Includes: Ombre Blackstar cream eyeshadow and Crayon Blackstar eye pencil.
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Gorgeously packaged to elevate your table decorations for Christmas, these alcohol Christmas crackers are sure to be a hit with dad and would even make a great secret Santa gift.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: 30ml bottles of Highland Park 12 Year Old, Viking Honour, Inchmoan 12 Year Old, Teeling Single Grain, Talisker 10 Year Old, Dalwhinnie 15 Year Old and Bulleit Bourbon 10 Year Old, plus a party hat, tasting notes and a joke.
Save money on Christmas gifts and crackers for foodies and boozers with these Selfridges discounts
Straight from the British institution itself, these Selfridges Xmas crackers will be a high-end addition to your Christmas tableware and, whether your guests are students or time-earned home owners, mini grater and cookie cutter utensils are always a handy kitchen addition.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: Mini grater, comb, keyring, tape, cookie cutter, jam jar, honey dipper, plus a joke and hat.
In luxe muted packaging with a deep red/burgundy bow, these Oka party crackers are some of the best luxury Christmas crackers, if you ask us, and offer buyers a selection of high-end homeware to accentuate their own dining tables at home.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: Bone/horn crafted bottle opener, espresso cup, butter knife, wine stopper keyring, teaspoon and honey drizzler.
Save money on crackers for the festive season and all their trinket gifts with these Oka discounts
If the likes of Marks & Spencer and other high-street retailers aren't cutting it with their festive cracker selections, then why not look to Not On The High Street and personalise your crackers with your choice of five different colours, fonts and up to 12 characters of text.
- Number of crackers: One-six.
- Includes: Your choice of Willie’s Cacao Chocolate Bar, Tony's Chocolonely Chocolates, Jealous Gummy Sweets, Monty Bojangles Premium Truffles and/or Jelly Belly Gourmet Jelly beans.
Save money on dinner party Christmas crackers with these Not On The High Street discounts
Plastic-free aside from the ribbon, which is crafted from recycled plastic bottles and is certainly reusable for Christmas tablescapes in years to come, these quaint mistletoe covered crackers are chic, eco-friendly and themselves recyclable and - some parts - compostable.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: Jam, seedballs (pea shoot seeds), 2x teabags, scented St Eval tealight and a solid shampoo bar, plus paper hats and jokes.
All Daylesford's own Christmas cracker in-house designs with Hugo Guinness, these punchy red crackers filled with goodies will make for bright Christmas decorations on your dinner table, not to mention they won't set you back too much £££-wise either.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: (All plastic-free) mini grater, wildflower seeds, bracelet, Santa badge, yoyo and dice, plus a joke and a hat.
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Tom Smith crackers are most certainly time-earned in the cracker gift set world, and these cutesy snowflake ones would make a great addition to any Christmas tree decorations, offsetting that deep fir green with lighter sage and ivory shades - lovely.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: Pack of tinned cards, a tape dispenser, a luggage tag, a sewing kit, an egg cup and a metal puzzle, plus a hat and ‘motto’.
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As gin Christmas crackers go, Edinburgh gin ones are pretty plush, let alone ones with warming rhubarb, spice and orange blossom flavours - a top pick for mums, dads and everyone in between (just not the kids!).
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: Mini alcohol bottles of Edinburgh gin liqueur apple & spice, orange blossom & mandarin, strawberry & pink pepper, rhubarb & ginger, elderflower and raspberry.
We love L'Occitane here at team GLAMOUR, so to discover you can buy their own brand beauty crackers without having to DIY source all the products yourself into some fill your own Christmas crackers. Well, to say we were excited would be an understatement.
- Number of crackers: Four.
- Includes: Verbena shower gel and verbena hand cream, almond shower oil and almond hand cream, shea butter shower oil and shea butter hand cream, cherry blossom shower gel and cherry blossom hand cream.
Save money on everything from fragrances to a bottle of Christmas tipple with these John Lewis discounts
Bamford make the dreamiest body products so the fact that these Christmas crackers come in such gorgeous green and white gift wrap has completely sold them to us. Plus, we love that everyone gets the same cracker gift - family fighting, no more.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: In each cracker - Geranium body wash, geranium bath salts, B Silent pillow mist.
While they're not filled with personalised gifts or even, on the more luxurious end, beauty gifts, these tree Christmas crackers will look spectacular on your table and, to be honest, will save all the wasted Chinese puzzle boxes and other novelty cracker gifts.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: Each one doubles up as a Christmas tree topper and is fill with sparkly star confetti, a hat and a joke.
Fever-tree tonics are so fragrant and delicious, so finding out that they're now doing mixed spirit crackers to suit your London Dry gin fanatic nan and your rum guzzling uncle was a serious weight off our Christmas planning leaden shoulders.
- Number of crackers: Four.
- Includes: Fever-Tree Ultimate Golden Ginger Ale & Duppy Share Aged Rum, Fever-Tree Ultimate Blood Orange Spritz Soda & Ketel One Vodka, Fever-Tree Ultimate Rhubarb & Raspberry Tonic & Mermaid Pink Gin, Fever-Tree Premium ginger ale & Silent Pool Pool Rare Citrus Gin.
From the quality of the packaging to the silver luxury gifts within, these Harrods Christmas crackers are a real upgrade on the Christmas dinner standard and, if you ask us, the sage bows could easily be repurpose on a Christmas wreath or DIY hamper gift.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: Silver shoehorn, nail clippers, cookie cutters, bottle opener, coffee scoop, star card holder.
Forever crackers are perhaps the most eco-friendly way to put novelty gifts on your Christmas dinner table and, if you are going to treat yourself to reusable Christmas crackers, you might as well do it with the best of the best, we think.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: N/A - fill your own.
What could be better after turkey, gravy and brussel sprouts than a luxury chocolate bon bon from one of these Hotel Chocolat Christmas crackers? Need we say more?
- Number of crackers: Ten.
- Includes: One of the following - pecan praline, salted caramel, billionaire's shortbread, caramel cheesecake or dizzy praline.
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These Fortnum & Mason Christmas crackers really are top tier in terms of design, not to mention the fact that they're not only chocolate Christmas crackers, but Marc de Champagne chocolate Christmas crackers - we'll take three packs, please.
- Number of crackers: Ten.
- Includes: Each contains a Fortnum's Pink Marc de Champagne Truffle drum, a hat and a joke.
We're heading straight to the checkout, bypassing all the FAQs and delivery times because, at the end of the day, who wouldn't want a sloe gin tipple to top off their Christmas tablescape?
- Number of crackers: Four.
- Includes: London Dry Gin, Zesty Orange Gin, Lemon Drizzle Gin and Sloe Gin, plus a ‘ginny’ joke.
When we say luxury Christmas crackers, we don't usually mean £1k+ of sterling silver gifts, but there is a time and a place for such high-end gifts, and Christmas is it. So scrap off the t-shirts, and Christmas cards with money inside, if you've got the capital to give your loved ones a real showstopping gift, this'll be just the ticket. for you.
- Number of crackers: Six.
- Includes: Life Ring pendant, Blue Enamel Cufflinks, Non-Touch Keyring, Tumble Cup, Whistle, Keyring, 167 Button Stud Earrings.
For more from GLAMOUR UK’s Associate Commerce Writer Georgia Trodd, follow her on Instagram @georgiatrodd.
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