The past few years we’ve tried to simplify our lives as we approach the Christmas season — and I think that each year we keep getting better, though we’re not completely “there” yet. Last year we still had a bit of scrambling for this and that the last few days before Christmas. Not our ideal way to celebrate Jesus’ birthday!

This year I’m getting some help from Organized Christmas.com. I’ve printed out my Christmas Countdown planner and will get started on it next week, a bit earlier than recommended because we have more traveling to do before Christmas. Besides that, I’m following some parts of their Holiday Grand Plan (which actually started last week, but I figure it won’t hurt to try and catch up). One of the first things you do on the Grand Plan is make lists.

Being Filipino we already incorporate a lot of Chinese and Spanish traditions in our celebrations, but there are a few more things we’ve adopted from other countries as well. The Christmas cracker is one British tradition we enjoy, so this year it again appears on my list of possible stocking stuffers. (The other British tradition I love is the Christmas pudding with hard sauce!)

It was just lovely timing then that I was asked to review the site Tom Smith Christmas Crackers.

Though I had known about Tom Smith and the history of Christmas crackers, I didn’t know there was a “Tom Smith” cracker company. (You get quite an education researching these things.)

Tom Smith has several categories to choose from; here are a couple of things that caught my eye: Classically Striped Christmas Crackers and Traditional Tree Wreath Christmas Cracker. They’re so pretty and festive, aren’t they?

One thing that boggles the mind: when you click on the individual crackers to read the description, you’ll see “Important Sizing Links for this Item” which will take you to a sizing chart. Do people wear Christmas crackers and I was just never aware of this?

After some more browsing around the site, I found that this is the same company that owns and operates Halloween Express and Christmas Express — they acquired Tom Smith Christmas Crackers this year. So what seems to have happened here is that the same template was used across their sites, hence the sizing information which is unnecessary for the Christmas crackers portion.

There are also Disney and Halloween crackers in the “Specialty Cracker” section, but eh. What makes Christmas crackers special for me is their association with Christmas. Anytime you stretch out an item to include other events on the calendar it loses its novelty and becomes BLAH.

Their specialty crackers and juvenile crackers, BTW are the same. Maybe they should just lump this as one category instead of having two — at least until they can fill in the category with varying items.

Some important things to know before you order: You get free shipping for orders $100 or more. Actually in this section of the website it says $99 — which is confusing. They also DO NOT ACCEPT returns. Oh, and Internet orders ONLY.

What I’d really like to see is an offering for make-your-own Christmas crackers, for those of us who would like to put in our own favors or who have fun putting things together. Such an activity would be fun for kids too.

I’d also like to see a statement about where products are made. Many companies are now tacking on this information to their product descriptions — as they say, an informed consumer is your best customer. When your customers know exactly what they’re getting, you’re less likely to get complaints/questions, so my suggestion is to provide as much information as you can upfront.

I e-mailed customer service to inquire and I was told that the crackers are “manufactured in our factories in Asia”. Last year the crackers I bought (not from this company though) were made in China, so the assumption that these are made in China as well would not be far-fetched. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Considering that the English Christmas cracker was originally inspired by the Chinese fortune cookie, it’s not so ludicrous an idea — though still good to know ahead of time.

Lastly, one little quibble: negligible to some, but may affect how people view their company in terms of professionalism: the word “receive” is misspelled “recieve” in several places. A good editor might help:)

Overall, I think it’s a well-enough designed site, though quite generic. Do read the FAQs before you order!

Oh and yeah, in case I didn’t make it clear, this is a paid post.