The two-meter Christmas crackers for a social day

It’s safe to say that Christmas 2020 will be a somewhat unusual affair thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

For those who have family and friends for the festive season, antibacterial soaps might be a must-have this year like turkey and Brussels sprouts, while hugs can be kept to a minimum.

But even if you take advantage of the Christmas bell relaxation of social aloofness, you may want to take it a step further and still stay six feet away.

In that case, an online retailer has a gimmick that can help: six-foot Christmas crackers.

At £ 48.50 for a ten-foot packet of crackers you’d expect at least a novelty gift and a bad joke – but they aren’t. Instead, you have to make and fill them yourself.

A spokesperson for the retailer Where The Trade Buys says, “Customers should put their own gifts in the cracker first and then put them together – it comes in” flat-pack “form.”

The advantage of this is that you can carefully choose gifts that people would like to have.

The capacity of the 2 meter wide cracker is quite generous with a width of 28 cm, a depth of 26 cm and a height of 83 cm, so you can put quite a few small gifts and funny jokes in it.

However, adding your own gifts would increase the price of the cracker even further.

How to make your own crackers, including a 2m

Amanda White, founder of Gift Frippery, a gift wrap workshop, says it’s possible to make your own crackers – and even a six-foot cracker – at a fraction of the cost.

Smaller crackers can use toilet roll tube and wrapping paper, with presents in them, while bigger crackers need bigger tubes – finding something to pop them can be tricky too.

She says, ‘To make it, you have to ask the fabric stores about the pipes they have left over from materials.

They always have loads lying around and will generally happily give them away for free.

‘You can also use wrapping paper tubes.

Then you need wrapping paper to wrap your two-meter tube and a piece of plus ribbon at each end. A three meter roll of paper would be less than £ 5.

“With a roll of three meters you could package three crackers lengthwise.”

Amanda White, founder of Gift Frippery, who has held Christmas cracker workshops in the past, says it’s possible to make your own 2m version as well as regular sized crackers

She adds, ‘If you’re on a budget, you can fill it with chocolate and shredded paper that you get with your Amazon deliveries.

‘If you want to pay more, you can, for example, put miniature gin in it. You can buy paper hats really cheaply and get family to write jokes that I’m sure will be better.

When it comes to the presents, you can make as much or as little as you want. It depends on your circumstances. ‘

If you don’t like an oversized cracker, there are plenty of Christmas cracker sets sold online that would cost you less than £ 10 for a pack of eight to 10 crackers.

Or a cardboard cutout family

Where The Trade Buys also offers a wider range of seasonal ‘sit-ees’ full-size cut-outs that can be placed at the Christmas table with your family for £ 30.60, along with £ 3 delivery.

Would you pay more than £ 60 for a cardboard grandma and grandpa instead of the real deal?

The full-size cut-out version may be more difficult to replicate, but there are plenty of competing print shops offering cut-outs at a lower price.

With celebritycutouts.co.uk, for example, you could buy a cardboard version of Boris Johnson for between £ 12.97 – £ 39.97, depending on whether you want the mini version of him or not.

That is, provided he is welcome at the Christmas table.