Re-Cracker in action

Re-Cracker Filler packs

Our Filler packs retail for $39.95. They include 8 12-inch snaps, 8 terrible jokes printed on kraft paper, and 8 specially curated little gifts. These are cracker items you will actually want!   Note, all Re-crackers come empty: you need to load them yourself. 

Inside the Filler pack you will receive:

• x8 12-inch snaps
• x8 jokes
• Goat's milk soap from Soap Kitchen Wānaka
• Soy Candle from Wild Rose Wānaka
• Bamboo piwakawaka keyring from LaserStudio Wānaka
• Bamboo fridge magnet from LaserStudio Wānaka
• Lip Balm from Simple Naked Soaps in Balclutha
• Solid shampoo from in Simple Naked Soaps Balclutha
• A shower steamer from Take a Wiff in Christchurch. 
• A $3 token for donation to Te Kakano Aoteroa Trust

If you want to fill the Re-crackers yourself, please note the units are 32cm long so the snaps must be 12-inch (30cm).

The mini gifts must be under 5cm in depth/width in order to fit in.

*These are forbidden for international air travel. All orders by customers outside of New Zealand will have the snaps removed. You will need to source 12-inch snaps in your own country.

Reusable Cotton Crowns

Our Christmas Re-crackers™ can be purchased with our sturdy, reusable cotton crowns that will fit all heads so no more tissue hats sliding down your nose over Christmas dinner!

The crowns are a variety of coloured cotton with wading to make them stand up straight. We chose simple plain colours as we are big fans of reusing these for kids birthday parties… (kids parties create a phenomenal amount of waste!).

The crowns are machine washable and can be washed on warm and soaked if necessary to remove makeup or sweat. Please note excessive soaking will dull the colour of the hat. Do not tumble dry.

These are not just toilet rolls wrapped in fabric.

We have a patent-pending, custom-designed tube system that has been tested by engineers to ensure our Christmas Re-crackers™ ‘pull’ apart just like a disposable.

In fact, the numbers show that a disposable cracker pulls apart with approximately 87 Newtons of pressure. (Personally, I never listened in physics class but now I wish I did! A Newton is the measurement of tension or a breaking point of an object).

This means a disposable cracker has 8.7kg and each person is pulling 4.35kg. Our Christmas Re-crackers™ were measured with an average of 96 Newtons so each person is pulling 4.8kg… but the good thing about our design is that the tension is variable.

If you push the crackers together by just 1-2mm then the tension goes down to 81 Newtons which is perfect for little kids. If you push them together by 10-15mm then it goes up to 121 Newtons but we personally don’t advise this as a fierce battle may result in an elbow in the eye or damaging the life expectancy of the Re-cracker.

• Our Christmas Re-Crackers™ are designed to be a one-off purchase as a set of 8.
• Buy them with to without the Reusable Cotton Crowns.
• You then buy our Re-Cracker Filler packs each year which contain 8 snaps, 8 jokes and 8 mini gifts. If you subscribe, these will be delivered to your door so you don’t need to lift a finger and you get 15% of the regular price.

It’s the plastic junk inside disposable crackers that have seen their decline in popularity over recent years. But, as we become more aware of our environmental footprint, many people are making the hard choice to leave tradition behind. Our family even had a massive family fight about it -- the traditionalists wanting to use crackers "because it's only once a year!" whilst the progressives said, "No, we need to make sacrifices to do the right thing." Poor mum was stuck in the middle trying to be Switzerland and keep everyone happy. This was actually the leaping off point for the design of our Re-crackers but it was more than just making reusable crackers and hats themselves -- we wanted to turn the whole experience on its head.

Not only are the Re-crackers and Cotton Crowns reusable, but the mini gifts in our Re-Cracker Filler packs actually benefit local businesses and charities. It’s not enough just to provide plastic-free, eco-friendly items -- it has to benefit people as well. That’s why we are supporting small craft market businesses who actually do a happy dance when you pull your re-cracker because they have handmade the item you are about to enjoy.

How to pull a Christmas Re-cracker   

Unlike a disposable cracker, the snap insert is not glued in so you need a two-handed pull to ensure the snap and the re-cracker pull apart simultaneously.

1. Two guests will take hold of one end of the Re-Cracker each.
2. Holding the snap firmly on the inside with one hand, place the other hand on top to pull the fabric.
3. Pull using two hands.
4. The person who gets the crown side wins the bonbons.

How to load your Christmas Re-crackers 

1. Pull your Re-Cracker tubes apart and untie the bows. 
2. Level up the fabric on the ends (The fabric sleeve is not attached to the tubes).
3. Roll up a crown tightly.
4. Take a snap and place it with the crown so that the snap extends evenly on both ends of the crown.
5. Take the small tube (the one with the label) and insert the hat and snap it together into it. Ensure the snap has come through past the ribbon. 
6. Take the big tube and lining up the seams gently press the large and small tubes together. (This only needs to be gently pressed together so there is a 2mm overlap, any more and you may have difficulty pulling the cracker apart).
7. Wrap a joke around your bonbon and insert this carefully through the ribbon end of the large tube, be sure not to dislodge the snap.
8. Now tie your bows loosely at each end and ta-da you are done.

Care    

1. Undo the ribbons and pull the Re-Cracker tubes apart.
2. Grab the inside layer of the fabric sleeve and pull them off the tubes to wash.
3. Machine or hand wash on COLD
4. Lie flat in shade to dry
5. Do NOT tumble dry. The sleeve is designed to fit tightly around the tube. If you apply heat through washing or drying, the shrinkage will make it very difficult to get it back onto the tube. Therefore, you must wash on cold and dry in the shade.
6. Once the sleeves are thoroughly dry match the small tube with the sleeve that has the label, the big tube has the sleeve without a label. 
7. Pull the ribbon side of the fabric through the middle of the tube and fold it back over the outside of the tube.
8. Store Re-Crackers and crowns in a dry environment and out of sunlight between uses where they will not be crushed.

FAQ 

What repair or replacement policy do you have?

We realise someone may sit on a re-cracker and destroy the tube. Just send us a photo of the destroyed tube and we will send a replacement tube ($3 per half). The fabric sleeves will last decades if they are well looked after.

Why do you need a photo of the destroyed tube?

Our design is patent-protected and whilst we have a huge love for home crafting DIYers, we need to protect ourselves from people buying our custom-made tubes to make their own crackers.

Can I refill them myself?

Yes. Just make sure you source 12-inch snaps!!! Snaps from craft shops often come in 8, 10 or 12-inch options. You definitely need 12-inch snaps otherwise they won’t work!

Can I buy your refill kit to use with my own homemade crackers?

Yes! Absolutely! We’d love you to! And you can also buy the crowns separately to add to your own DIY crackers if you wish.

They seem expensive… how do you explain the price?

You won't need to buy disposable crackers ever again! That will save you money over time, and YOU ARE NOT THROWING IT AWAY!
At the current price of $199.95 for eight Re-Crackers and 8 Reusable Crowns, it works out at $12.50 per re-cracker, and $12.50 per crown -- with a large, sturdy storage box for free!

Our re-crackers are all handmade in New Zealand with custom-made patent-pending tubing, and unique fabric patterns that we have developed. As these will last for many many years, it’s actually a bargain! (Did you know Tiffany’s has a cracker set that retails for over $200,000).

And we have pricing options to suit your budget!

Eight is too few, 16 is too many… can I buy variations in quantities?

We do have Individual Re-Crackers available to buy with or without the Crowns for those who need to top up their set of 8 but don't need 16.

How do you decide who ‘wins’ the battle if they split in the middle?

The half with the hat wins!

Are your jokes really terrible?

They are dreadful! All our jokes are guaranteed to make you groan and all are family-friendly to read out in front of Grandma and the kids.

Do you ship to Australia? UK? Canada?

Yes, but we only offer tracked courier which is more expensive as we have found shipping times due to Covid so incredibly long that overseas customers were waiting 3-4 months for regular postage. For orders outside New Zealand, the snaps will be removed from our refill packs as we can’t courier these internationally as they are classed as an explosive. You will need to source 12-inch snaps from a supplier near you.

I’d like to order 50+ Re-Crackers for my corporate Christmas and/or event company to hire out each year.

Fabulous. We have special rates for orders of 50+ re-crackers which is perfect for event hire companies who wish to hire them out for all their Christmas events each year. For businesses that wish to buy them for internal use each year, we can work with you to tailor the refill pack to include your own products as well as donation tokens to charities of your choice.

Can I sell these in my store?

Contact us at emma@wastefreecelebrations.co.nz for enquiries about retailing.

History of the Christmas Cracker

Tradition tells of how Tom Smith (1823–1869) of London invented crackers in 1847. He created the crackers as a development of his bon-bon sweets, which he sold in a twist of paper (the origins of the traditional sweet-wrapper). As sales of bonbons slumped, Smith began to come up with new promotional ideas. His first tactic was to insert love messages into the wrappers of the sweets (similar to fortune cookies).

Smith added the "crackle" element when he heard the crackle of a log he had just put on a fire. The size of the paper wrapper had to be increased to incorporate the banger mechanism, and the sweet itself was eventually dropped, to be replaced by a trinket: fans, jewellery and other substantial items. The new product was initially marketed as the Cosaque (French for Cossack), but the onomatopoeic "cracker" soon became the commonly used name, as rival varieties came on the market.

The other elements of the modern cracker—the gifts, paper hats and varied designs—were all introduced by Tom Smith's son, Walter Smith, to differentiate his product from the rival cracker manufacturers which had suddenly sprung up.

The Second World War caused paper rationing and a restriction on the manufacture of cracker snaps, but the industry recovered – in the 1950s and 1960s, Tom Smith & Co. was making 30,000 crackers a week. Today Christmas crackers are produced for every pocket, from luxurious to fun-sized. And the Tom Smith brand continues to produce luxury crackers, including special crackers for the Royal Household, although the designs and contents are a closely guarded secret.

Why do we wear crowns?

We wear paper hats on special occasions like Christmas Day and birthday parties. The tradition of wearing hats at parties goes back to the Roman Saturnalia celebrations (celebrated around 25 December) when the participants also wore hats.

The idea of wearing a paper crown may have also originated from the Twelfth Night celebrations, where a King or Queen was appointed to look over the proceedings.

Why Re-Crackers? 

Finding accurate data on how many crackers the planet goes through each year has been very hard to come by. In the UK, British Airways did a survey on Christmas consumption and found that the UK went through 154 million crackers each year which is 2.33 crackers for every person in the UK. (https://mediacentre.britishairways.com/pressrelease/details/86/0/9075). To find the global total, the best estimate is to use population data then apply the same ratios.

• UK 66 million people - 154 million crackers
• Canada 37 million people - 85 million crackers
• Australia 25 million people - 57 million crackers
• South Africa 58 million - 133 million crackers
• Ireland 5 million - 11 million crackers

We know in New Zealand we imported 1.7million disposable crackers in 2020 (NZ Customs data) which was down from 4.5million in 2016. This is much less than 2.3 crackers per person largely due to NZ’s progressive stance on waste.

Then there are all the other countries where crackers are sold but do not form such a critical part of Christmas tradition.

All in all, we estimate that the planet produces, consumes and chucks out anywhere from 300 - 400 million crackers each year.