Before reading our guide to the best Christmas crackers, don’t forget to check out more fabulous festive content from The Field including our look at the best luxury advent calendars, the best country Christmas cards and the best hampers. If you’ve got Christmas shopping to do, look no further than…

If you’re feeling in need of inspiration for what to buy those who love to entertain, worry not. The Field‘s Christmas gift guide for the home is here to help with everything from baubles to backgammon. For more Christmas inspiration, be sure to take a look at our other seasonal…

A homemade pudding is something special

Even Agatha Christie’s most diehard fans would not claim that the title tale of the short-story collection she published in 1960 is her finest mystery. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding does, however, contain her most delightful description of a dessert. Sitting down to Christmas dinner, Hercule Poirot is confronted…

Carols by candlelight

Where would Christmas be without hunting? Bing Crosby dreamt of a white Christmas with every Christmas card he wrote. When that card shows the traditional scene of the hunt on the village green or in the market square on Boxing Day, then so much the more Christmassy. And along with…

Boys playing parlour games

On one cerebral festive occasion in an Irish castle I was invited to join in an incomprehensible word-play game with two Oxford undergraduates, then in full command of their intellectual plumage and prowess. They must have thought me a dunce and a dullard for, in that drowning hour, I did…

best festive fruitcakes

If you haven’t had time to make and ice a fruitcake for Christmas then never despair. We’ve sought out a selection of the best festive fruitcakes to feast on over the Christmas season. (And if you’re looking for our list of the best Christmas puddings, no stirring required, you’ll find…

Christmas pudding

The best Christmas pudding and brandy butter is a hard combination to beat. Don’t be alarmed by the lack of precision and for goodness sake, leave the supermarket brandy butter on the shelf. Both are best homemade, and remarkably simple, says Ettie Neil-Gallacher. (However, if you are short of time,…