We’re all for celebrating the holiday season, but those pops shouldn’t cause excess waste (most are not recycled) and be sourced with no ethical or sustainable mechanisms in place to protect people and planet. Tiny plastic crackers that contribute to the surge of holiday waste are anything but jolly.
Along with eco-friendly gift wrapping, choosing eco-friendly Christmas crackers is an easy swap to help your holidays bring good tidings to more than just your loved ones.
So how do you make Christmas crackers environmentally friendly? On this list we’ve included several bon bons you can buy (including reusable crackers), and we’ve included a few DIY cracker ideas if you want to lower your waste and negative impact even further.
Related guides: Sustainable Christmas Ideas, Sustainable Christmas Decorations, Consumable Gift Ideas, Non-Toxic Gifts, Ideas for Sustainable Stocking Stuffers, Sustainable Christmas Tree Guide
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The Best Sustainable Christmas Crackers & Bon Bons
Stay off the naughty list this year with a bang of sustainability and color for your home with those created by Altered State Studio. These crackers are reusable, made from cotton, and come in fun and classic patterns.
UK-based Keep This Cracker gives the gift of adorable (and pet-friendly) reusable Christmas crackers to celebrate the occasion for many seasons to come. These are made from plain or printed FSC-certified kraft paper and come plastic-free.
Ms Claus Workshop Co is another UK based plastic-free cracker brand who make theirs in a range of Christmas colors with eco-friendly materials including recycled paper, cotton cord, and twine.
Index: Sustainable & Plastic-Free Christmas Crackers
- Altered State Studio Jump to section
- Keep This Cracker Jump to section
- Ms Claus Workshop Co Jump to section
- Cardboard Hunters Jump to section
- Little Doris Designs Jump to section
- The Conscious Cracker Co. Jump to section
- Make Your Own DIY Christmas Crackers Jump to section
Altered State Studio
Altered State Studio’s Christmas Crackers
Price Range: £10 (per bon bon)
Altered State Studio has some of the most eco-friendly Christmas crackers on offer. Their reusable Xmas crackers come in a variety of colors and patterns from falling snow to mistletoe—so if you live in a warmer climate that doesn’t see much of winter, you can still pop into the holiday spirit.
Cooler than their wintery designs, however, are what they’re made of. Instead of paper, their fabric reusable crackers are crafted with weight cotton meant to last for many seasons.
All deliveries are packaged in a cardboard box that can be used for storing them when not in use. As the product is fabric and fully repairable if damaged, there isn’t even the need to recycle after use, meaning you can stay zero waste for many Christmases to come!
Keep This Cracker
Keep This Cracker’s Christmas Crackers
Price Range: ~£35 for 6
Keep This Cracker wants to help you find your favorite festive favors by creating some of the best reusable Etsy Christmas crackers. Because they can be used again and again, you can save space on next year’s Christmas list.
Plus, they fold flat so they can double as fill for your own crackers and the ecosnap® promises a pet-friendly pop.
Handcrafted and made with materials local to the UK, Keep This Cracker’s plastic-free Christmas crackers are recyclable and compostable. They’re also made in the UK with either plain or printed FSC-certified kraft paper and recycled satin ribbons.
Worried about keeping your reusable Christmas crackers safe until next year? Keep This Cracker ships your purchase with a Reusable Card Wallet to safely store them until the next festive season rolls around.
Ms Claus Workshop Co
Ms Claus Workshop Co’s Christmas Crackers
Price Guide: ~£31 for 5
Tired of the classic red and green for Christmas? Ms Claus Workshop Co sells elegant black eco Christmas Crackers on Etsy that give Santa’s helper a bit of an edge. These crackers are perfect for those who want to change up the standard Christmas color palette, as they come in white, red, kraft, grey, green, blue, black, and purple.
Made with recyclable, compostable, and biodegradable materials, they’re perfect for anyone like Buddy the Elf hoping to be on the nice list this year.
Creating sustainable Christmas Crackers is already pretty neat, but MsClausWorkshopCo goes the extra mile by making their entire company plastic-free. The UK made eco crackers, for instance, are made of recycled paper, cotton cord, and twine. Just remove the charm before tossing in your indoor compost bin.
They also sell place cards, gift tags and party favors.
Cardboard Hunters
Cardboard Hunters’ Luxurious Christmas Bon Bons
Price Range: AUD8–10 for 4 bon Bons
How about a pre-Christmas project for the kids (i.e. DIY crackers)? Cardboard Hunters sells eco-friendly alternatives to Christmas crackers made out of, well…cardboard.
Not sure what you want to fill your bon bons with? CardboardHunters offers plenty of options, like handmade chocolate, natural playdough, Christmas stickers, and tea bags. If you (or your kids) don’t have the time, don’t worry because they also offer pre-filled cardboard crackers that will sit stylishly next to your finest Christmas cutlery.
The cardboard container for each cracker is compostable but the satin string is not, so be sure to remove this (and try to reuse next time you’re wrapping gifts!).
Their eco-friendly bon bons are handmade by the shop’s owner in Australia.
Little Doris Designs
Little Doris Designs’ Christmas Crackers UK
Price Range: £30 for 6
But what about Easter, you say? Leave it to Little Doris Designs who covers all bases (err…seasons).This Etsy shop sells UK made crackers in both Christmas and sustainable easter themes.
Each plain recycled kraft paper tube is filled with compostable paper hats (or optional ethical UK chocolate should you choose) and tied with either recyclable paper ribbon or silk organza. They also come with a hand stamped copper or aluminium wine charm.
Little Doris Designs is all about sustainability – both in their products and packaging. Each item is packaged using recyclable or biodegradable materials, so you can still get your online shopping fix without sacrificing on sustainability.
The Conscious Cracker Co.
The Conscious Cracker Co’s Christmas Crackers
Price Range: AUD55 for 6
The Conscious Cracker Co. embodies a uniquely Australian Christmas spirit. With a Silver Princess Eucalyptus design, this sustainable Christmas bon bon represents Australia’s sunnier side during their festive summer season. And they have all the good stuff, as you would expect.
They’re made from post-consumer material, printed with sustainable ink, and still come filled with Christmas jokes and paper hats.
The Conscious Cracker Co. creates all their products on Australia’s Sunshine Coast. Made of 100% post-consumer paper printed with eco inks, these luxury Christmas crackers are plastic-free and palm oil free. A pretty crackin’ idea if we do say so ourselves.
Make Your Own DIY Christmas Crackers
Not into shelling out money this Christmas for crackers? Totally understandable.
Christmas costs can rack up, so if you’re budget-conscious and wondering., “What can I use instead of crackers at Christmas?“, know you don’t necessarily need to forgo them altogether.
Instead, try making a DIY Christmas cracker, which are also some of the most sustainable alternatives to Christmas crackers.
Happily, most of what you need can be found around the house, think: empty eco-friendly toilet paper rolls. For each cracker you’ll need:
- Three toilet paper rolls
- Colorful paper, newspaper, eco-friendly stationery or preferably old wrapping paper
- String, shoelaces or twine
- A few bon bon snaps (or leave these out if you have pets)
- Glue or tape.
To fill your own eco crackers, zero waste gifts or thrifted gifts can greenify the surprise. And some handwritten jokes make for a nice touch!
By wrapping the paper around your old toilet rolls, snapping in the bon bon clips, and tying it up nice and neat, your DIY Christmas decorations will be ready to roll (or pull).
Or you can skip the cracker altogether and make other DIY “cracker” alternatives or new traditions for example:
- Personalized gift bags or stockings: Instead of crackers, use reusable or paper gift bags filled with small, personalized gifts, treats, or cards (thrift stores are great for the fillings but we’ve added more ideas below).
- Host a small game or activity instead of a snap & pop: Think mini games, trivia cards, conversation-starter cards, or a small group activity after dinner (for example a “whodunnit” or puzzle rather than a cracker snap).
- DIY eco-friendly table gifts or ornaments: Give items that double as decorations or keepsakes (like handmade ornaments, seed packets, small reusable items) instead of ephemeral plastic bits.
Other DIY Cracker Filling Ideas:
When you go reusable, plastic-free or DIY, consider filling with:
- Small treats: Homemade cookies, fair-trade chocolate, nuts, dried fruit
- Useful items: Seeds for planting, wooden ornaments, small tools, handmade soaps, reusable household goodies
- Experiences or thoughtful tokens: Handwritten notes, promises (e.g. a favour/coupon), small certificates, or shared activities
- Reusable items: Fabric napkins, small cloth bags, stationery, or similar practical items
How We Chose The Best Eco Friendly Christmas Crackers
The plastic-made Christmas crackers we grew up with are a festive downer. Which is why we put together a list of eco Xmas crackers that will hopefully pop the holiday cheer back into your life this year.
But what makes a Christmas cracker sustainable?
Reusability
The best eco-friendly Christmas crackers are the ones that you can use for years to come.
Many of these crackers have reusable components in their construction: whether it’s recycled paper that can double as wrapping for your gifts, to ribbons ready to decorate your tree.
Even those that are not fully reusable Xmas crackers can still have long lives ahead of them.
Materials
Striving for a zero waste lifestyle is a good way to ensure you’re on the planet’s nice list.
That’s why we sought materials that can be safely recycled and/or composted, like kraft paper and natural fabric.
For components that aren’t natural and biodegradable, we look for those that are recyclable, like ribbons made from recycled plastic bottles.
Other Ethical and Sustainable Business Practices
How things are made is as important as what they are made of.
Fortunately, all of these eco friendly Christmas crackers are handmade by small shops and studios, rather than being mass produced in sweatshop-esque factories.
We also look for other ways brands reduce their carbon footprint, like offering zero or low waste packaging, sourcing materials locally, and supporting carbon offset programs or planting trees.
For Etsy eco Christmas crackers, the latter is a given since Etsy sponsors carbon neutral shipping.
Final Thoughts On Sustainable Christmas Crackers
While these eco friendly Christmas crackers can help greenify your holiday season, it’s important to be Earth-conscious beyond Christmas. Sustainable living is a holistic practice after all.
Starting with small changes adds up and soon you’ll have your whole household celebrating a plastic-free, eco holiday.
Since holidays encourage the spirit of giving consider sharing this article, so we can all sleigh sustainability this Christmas.
Jenny is a UK-based sustainability writer and tea-drinker extraordinaire who has a Masters in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh. Her travels have taken her to organic permaculture farms in the UK and Nepal but you’ll mostly find her working on the veg patch with a garden fork in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. Jenny writes for ethical brands and purpose-powered publications on a broad range of sustainable living and conscious consumerism topics. She is passionate about organic and regenerative farming, nature reconnection, and the small things we can do each day to better care for our planet.
