´óÏó´«Ã½

Do all Christmas crackers need to crack or bang?

It's a familiar sound during festivities in the UK, a bang and a snap, followed by a thud as a small gift drops onto the dinner table.

Inside there's a hat and often a joke, but one UK cracker company Alliance National, that provides crackers to lots of hotels and restaurants, has swapped its jokes for a note about the environment and is selling "crack-less" crackers instead.

More than 100 million crackers are sold in the UK each year and many contain hard-to-recycle materials like glitter, but also the chemical used to make them snap, which is often left inside.

The company has got rid of something called silver fulminate - which is a chemical painted on a narrow strip of card inside the cracker that has been used since 1860 to make the distinctive snapping sound of crackers.

Alliance National says its crackers will now have the "crack of cardboard" instead as the cracker is torn apart.

In place of a joke, the new crackers come with a note that says: "We have removed the snap from this cracker to ensure it is fully recyclable."

In a statement on its website, Alliance National said: "This year we have opted for an initiative which ensures our crackers are fully recyclable.

"The way this has been achieved is by removing the silver fulminate which is used to achieve the traditional snap. Now when the cracker is pulled it will instead break apart with the audible crack of cardboard meaning you can still enjoy a cracker with your meal whilst knowing you are doing something right for the environment."

Other companies, such as John Lewis, are still selling crackers with the traditional snap, but advise customers to remove the silver fulminate strips from their crackers before recycling them.

You can let us know in the comments what you think about crackers that have no snap.