Crackers
 

I've heard there is a Christmas cracker store in London. Does anyone know where it is? I know I can get them at Harrods, but don't want to pay the price.

I though I posted this once, apologies if it's a double post!

Hi o1012, I don't think there's a shop in London that WON'T be stocked with crackers around the holidays.

(I'm assuming you're referring to the paper tubes that pop open with a snap and are filled with little gifts and a paper hat.)

Really, you'll find them everywhere!

You can get crackers anywhere from cheap and cheerful to very expensive.
Marks and Spencers have quite nice ones but any supermarket stocks them.
Don't forget that they have a small explosive in them. If you want to take them out of the country, the airline might not be too happy.

Blimey, they sell Christmas Crackers everywhere. Try Marks and Spencers for posh crackers with decent paper hats, fairly acceptable toys (magnet, small suitcase lock) and amusing jokes. At the cheaper end of the market check out Tescos or Woolworths or even the card shops like Clintons. You'll find they contain flimsy paper hats that would hardly fit a pigmy's head without splittin, a tiny toy, (usually a crude plastic replica of a person on a motor bike or a whistle that doesn't work) and the same joke in every cracker, usually something last told on Blackpool's North Pier in 1959.
Expensive crackers make a loudish bang when you pull them, cheap crackers will almost certainly fail to detonate.

Oddly, Horrids offer adequate value for crackers.

You can pick up crackers from a street market at a couple of quid a dozen and find really useless (as opposed to groan-worthy) mottoes and horrible plastic gew-gaws. You can buy Horrids' priciest and get really good costume jewellery and the like, a hat that you'll actually put away and pull out next year as well as truly dreadful motto. The very priciest Horrids and Fortnum's crackers offer stuff inside you can't really find anywhere else.

The best value is usually at M+S or the own label ones at Tesco, Waitrose or Sainsbury's, if you can find a full-range store on your travels. Although the supermarket designs are a bit bland, their priciest crackers these days always have very good contents - though not quite in the Tiffany league.

Wherever you buy them, though, all but the really cheapo cheapos come from the same manufacturer. The Tom Smith Cracker Co makes for all of them, from Fortnum's to Asda.

If you want to take them home by plane, check with the airline before buying them.

If you live in the US stores like Cost Plus and Williams Sonoma import English crackers. It is always nice to buy them in England but it's just another suggestion.

You can get them from pasttimes.com. In London we always bought ours from Selfridges, which had a wide selection, but by mail for years ours came from Fortnum & Mason--pricey but absolutely gorgeous and with out-of-the-ordinary things inside.

You can find a good selection here:

http://christmas-crackers-usa.com/ch...s-crackers.htm

I especially like the ones with tiny ornaments inside.

The same brands that I can buy in the UK can be had for less money at any TJ MAXX or Marshalls (Homestore) in the USA. The 12 count big size usually runs anywhere from $5.99 to $12.99 which is way cheaper than in the UK.(Seriously,they are made over there and you won't have to worry about them getting smashed in your luggage,etc.)

Do you want to buy them because you will be in London - or do you want them to use back home?

If the former - then you've received all sorts of good info. You will find crackers EVERYWHERE.

But if you want them in the states - you can find them all over and save the shipping costs. Macy's, Walgreens, Marshalls, Ross, Nordstrom, Rite Aid, Longs, Cost Plus, Pier One, Williams Sonoma etc, etc -- just all over in every price range.

So much for the crackers. Now, does anyone know where to buy those fabulous crepe-paper hats that you can find in England? We were given them at several festive Christmas dinners in hotels and restaurants.

Thanks everyone for the good ideas. I usually do buy crackers each year at TJ Maxx or Marshall's, but I thought since I was going to be in London, it might be fun to bring some different ones home. I didn't think about the explosives in them (duh!), so I think I'll stick with the stores here in the states. Thanks again!