Kiwis Will Spend More On Crackers That Last Many Christmases

At almost $200 for a box of eight, the Waste Free Celebrations Re-CrackerTM set is not the kind of Christmas cracker that everyone is going to adorn the table with this Christmas Day – even if the lid opens to reveal an uber-sustainable mix of stunning cotton fabric cleverly fixed to recycled cardboard inners, with matching ribbon made from milk bottle tops.

It’s a level of eco-friendly sumptuousness never seen before in the 170-year-old tradition that reportedly began when a British sweet maker tried emulating the style of French bon-bons but wrapped them up in paper with a riddle inside.

And yet the demand that founder and former UN Aid worker and home-sewing mum, Emma Conyngham, has experienced in the second year of sales has been incredible. Regardless of the cost, which is increased when a customer buys the sustainable filler packs, she has still sold tens of thousands of the authentically gunpowder smelling, cracking treats since the launch in Plastic Free July last year.

The public support has been so promising that Conyngham moved Otago home-premises to Auckland and is now developing the Waste Free Celebrations products closer to the NFACT ( New Settlers Families and Communities Trust ) Afghan refugee sewers she formed a charitable partnership with last year. She has also started donating $3 from every filler pack sold to Starship Children’s Hospital.

Mrs Conyngham says the growth of this product line is due to her Kiwi, Australian and Asian customers looking at high-quality sustainable products in three ways: the products are a made-in-New Zealand example of ingenuity that reduces distasteful waste; the products are all made from recycled or natural resources; the products are durable. So after just three Christmases, the Re-CrackerTM cost reduces to that of quality disposable crackers.

The cost-per-use is a factor that consumers are slowly getting their heads around, she says, and this is a vital factor in any sustainable business – it costs customers more to start with but pays off quickly for people AND planet.

Conyngham hedged her bets on New Zealander’s shrinking demand for single-use crackers being a disenchantment with waste, rather than a fading interest in pulling a cracker and telling a bad joke. Cracker sales had dropped from over 4 million in 2015 to less than 2 million in 2020 - figures she researched when she started sewing Christmas gift bags for 2019 festive fairs in Wanaka. The public desire to do away with wrapping paper inspired her to make a much bigger investment in reducing waste.

At the same time as the crackers kicked off last year, Conyngham trialled Sew Your Own gift bags and was thrilled to see the kitsets selling in the hundreds. She decided that for Christmas 2022, she would offer the same DIY option for the Re-CrackerTM and orders are already matching ready-made options.

“One upside of lockdown is that the art of home sewing came back on trend and now crafters are ready to DIY themselves into a reusable Christmas. Additionally,

times are tough, and people have shown us that they want to do more themselves by getting out the sewing machine and scissors. They can rest assured that these cracker packs are easy to sew – if you can measure and sew in a straight line, you're all good!” says Mrs Conyngham.

For an even more recyclable experience, she has created downloadable templates and instructions for people to make their own crackers using wastepaper, toilet roll inners (which can be sterilised by popping them in the oven as instructed) and string.

“We then supply the filler packs so you can have an eco-friendly, locally made Christmas with all the traditional bells and whistles. The little ones can colour in the template design before making it into a cracker.”

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