The thoughtful reason presenter Katie Piper won’t be including crackers on her Christmas table this year

No Christmas dinner table would be complete without crackers, right? Not according to the presenter and author Katie Piper, who is ditching the crackers for a more thoughtful Christmas dinner keepsake instead this year.

Related:This genius gadget will transform how you decorate your home

Speaking to Ideal Home, Katie Piper reveals that like most of the population she caught the crafting bug during lockdown. The presenter's collaboration with Cricut, the latest must-have crafting gadget, has inspired her thoughtful table setting this year.

'We decided not to do crackers this year,' explains Katie. 'We're making little keepsakes with the Cricut machine.'

Katie Piper thoughtful Christmas dinner keepsake

'We know who we're spending Christmas with. So we've personalised it,' she continues We've gone online and chosen our favourite quotes that we know that person might relate to. They are all around kindness, spreading joy and positivity, which I think we can apply to everyone needs a dose of that at the moment.'

We couldn't have said it better ourselves. Katie explained that she plans to print the quotes onto little credit card keepsakes. 'You know like when you could get from card shops and you could keep them in your wallet, we've done it like that,' she explains.

'It looks really smart on the table, and you can get a border embossed around it. It lines up really nicely on the table mats.'

Katie hopes that the thoughtful place settings will also help combat the huge amount of waste produced at Christmas. 'Rather than crackers that get thrown away and add to other ongoing issues in the environment. With these keepsakes, you hope people are less likely to throw them away.

'Because we've hand made them, hopefully, people will keep them in a memory box or they might even bring them out at dinner parties, and reuse them.'

Buy now: Cricut Joy, £179.99, Amazon

If you've been inspired by Katie's thoughtful alternative to crackers you can create your own at home using a printer, set of pens and card.

However, for that professional finish, we're currently huge fans of the Cricut machine. It can be used to cut out Christmas cards, stickers and much more. You can also swap out the cutter for a pen, to fake flawless calligraphy on your cards.

Related: Christmas table decoration ideas that will set the scene for your festive feast

Will you be ditching the crackers this year?

Katie Piper has partnered with Cricut to create #MessagesOfJoy this Christmas.

You can recreate Katie's range of designs with the free Design Space app and Cricut Joy, which retails at £179.99 and is available at Very.co.uk, Curry’s PC World and Argos.