Monday, November 9, 2009

Expat Christmas Crackers

It's almost time for Christmas crackers. I started thinking about it the other day when I visited a craft store to purchase a Guy and saw that they had up to 40% off of their Christmas items. I asked the girl working up front if they had any Christmas crackers, and she had no idea what I was talking about. Many Americans are not familiar with Christmas crackers. They do sell them in local shops - in Las Vegas you can buy them at Cost Plus World Market, Williams Sonoma and Tuesday Morning, in addition to online retailers from both the US and UK. Many of us will undoubtedly have UK visitors during the Christmas holidays and can get the real thing stowed in a suitcase from England.

The more adventurous expats will be making their own crackers. I would love to do this for 2009, but I think the kids are too young and I know they would not understand or appreciate it now. I can just imagine it would be all of us in the room for a total of 15 seconds, before they lose interest and wander off and I am lost in a pile of empty toilet rolls, wrapping paper and trinkets. I think the making your own route is quite noble though - if for nothing else than getting a better prize than a plastic ring and a bad joke. So, I am looking for comments from other expats - where will you get crackers this year (buy, brought over, or homemade)? If you are making your own, what are you putting inside?

Thanks to BBC for the picture.

3 comments:

  1. TJ Maxx & Ross Dress for Less also usually stock them at this time of year. Either Sam's Club or Costco had them too in Dallas, TX last Christmas. Good luck....cheers! :)

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  2. I've had the luxury this year of a quick trip to the UK. In my case is a box of Waitrose crackers, they were the first thing I bought!

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  3. I looked for crackers in previous years, and only ever found any in World Market. But yesterday, I was in Target and by chance saw them on clearance (maybe they hadn't sold too well!) They had two different kinds.

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