Plastic-free favours at The Volunteer

Christmas party season is well underway at The Volunteer Inn in Ottery St Mary, but this year diners aren’t getting their traditional Christmas crackers.

Instead, landlord and landlady Mike and Jacqui Down have come up with an environmentally friendly alternative; a paper Christmas bag containing a joke, a paper hat, plus some homemade chocolate ‘bark’, all prettily wrapped in tissue paper and personalised.

Mike said: “We feel that Christmas crackers are really wasteful - the majority of the toys are made from plastic and are thrown away almost immediately.  

“We wanted to do something a little different and we have to say that the idea has gone down really well with all our Christmas parties.”

The Volunteer is ahead of the game, as big names including John Lewis and Waitrose have announced that this Christmas will be the last time they will be selling crackers with plastic toys inside in a bid to cut down on single use plastics.