Will Christmas crackers be featured on your Christmas table?

Christmas crackers are a traditional favourite around the table at Christmas time, but could this tradition be on its way out?

They were first made in about 1845-1850 by a London sweet maker called Tom Smith. He had seen the French ‘bon bon’ sweets on a visit to Paris in 1840. He came back to London and tried selling sweets like that in England and also included a small motto or riddle in with the sweet. But they didn’t sell very well.

Legend says that one night, while he was sitting in front of his log fire, he became very interested in the sparks and cracks coming from the fire. Suddenly, he thought what a fun idea it would be if his sweets and toys could be opened with a crack when their fancy wrappers were pulled in half.

More than 150m crackers are pulled each festive season, but they have recently come under fire for the fact that they often contain plastic toys that are thrown away almost immediately afterwards.

Mark Hall, of the BusinessWaste group, says these single-use items create an “unnecessary waste” of money, resources and energy and claims consumers often abandon their “good recycling habits” on the big day.

He said the festive season creates more plastic waste than any time of year most of which goes to landfill or is burned.

The eco-group has urged people to ditch shop-bought crackers and instead make their own from “loo roll and tissue paper”.

The group also suggests families should switch from wrapping gifts in printed wrap to “brown paper and white drawing paper”

What are your views? Are Christmas crackers pointless and unsustainable or a valued part of the Christmas celebration meal? Do you make your own?