TRADITIONAL Christmas crackers could become a thing of the past according to a Swindon climate campaigner.

John Ranford, a member of Extinction Rebellion, claims they are pointless and unsustainable.

More than 150m of them 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.

John is prepared to go even further. He said: “There’s going to be a rebellion against Christmas stuff. People will soon be asking if it is sustainable, and the answer, basically, is no.

“A large part of our economy is based around Christmas, it used to be that you would get someone something that they needed, but it’s not anymore.

“People are wealthier now than before and we don’t need things like crackers. That just adds to the pile of stuff that everyone has in their homes.”

If people aren’t ready to give up the crackers for Christmas there are plastic-free versions and some like John have taken to making their own.

He said: “What my family has taken to doing, is every year we nominate one person in our family to create five crackers. You can put a silly joke or a game inside something like an old toilet tube and it’s essentially the same.

“Christmas crackers are really stupid, they’re designed to give you a little smile or a grin and then it’s in the bin.

“The whole idea is to simulate fun and to create a party atmosphere but it doesn’t do that anymore. People don’t need something like that to make them interact with each other.”