Essential Aussie Christmas tables consist of prawns, ham and of course – Christmas crackers! However, the excitement of traditional crackers quickly wears off, with their overused plastic toys and corny jokes, the experience is over before you’ve even started lunch.
When Brisbane-based rocket engineer Nick McLean went through the monotonous motion of opening crackers one year while celebrating with family, he was underwhelmed by the cheap toy, paper hat and dated dad joke inside.
Nick says: "After the initial laughs, it was a bit deflating, as it always is. I found myself asking - is that it? I just couldn’t stop thinking, what if that didn’t have to be it?”
With a background in propulsion and mechanical engineering for an orbital rocket start-up company, Nick was inspired to reinvent a new type of Christmas cracker that would spark joy and bring people together through an interactive experience.
"During my travels through Japan, I started to form some ideas and take inspiration from their culture which is so fundamentally different to ours and with an amazing entertainment industry, full of incredible interactive games and experiences,” Nick says.
"We live in a changing world where unfortunately for many reasons, much of which are out of our control, we are drifting apart as people. We interact less in person, and we engage less with each other. Our fundamental goal is bringing people together in the hopes of changing this.”
Drawing inspiration from escape rooms that originated from Japan, where players need to solve puzzles in order to ‘escape the room’ – Bonbon Fusion created its flagship ‘Adventure Hunt’ Christmas cracker range. After selling these products at local markets on weekends, Nick eventually gave up his career as a rocket engineer and took up running the business fulltime.
Requiring between three to eight people to complete the activity, Bonbon Fusion’s world-first ‘Adventure Hunt’ bonbons are a must-have item at every Christmas lunch this year and instead of being filled with a bad joke and plastic toy, each bonbon unveils a mystery or clue which all work together to solve a puzzle and uncover a lost treasure.
For those having a quieter Christmas or looking to entertain larger crowds, Bonbon Fusion’s ‘Date Night’ and new ‘Detective Mystery’ range means there’s something for everyone.
"We know from conversations with our customers that our unique bonbons bring different groups together – from parents looking to spend quality time with their children around the table, or businesses wanting to add a team-building activity to their end-of-year celebrations,” Nick explains.
"By producing innovative bonbons that have ‘quiet-snaps’ to create a stress-free environment and employing Polylactic Acid, a biodegradable and starch-based plastic, for our 3D printing – we’re aiming to make the Christmas cracker tradition an inclusive activity for all.”
However, it’s not just relatives and friends who take part in the Christmas festivities, with pet parents now able to celebrate with their fur babies without feeding them potentially harmful leftovers.
"We want to ensure that all members of the household can experience the joy of the reinvented Christmas cracker – including those with four legs! Our pet-friendly bonbons are a safe way to spoil your pets and have become a popular add on for our customers.
"All of our 3D printed puzzles can be kept as keepsakes rather than thrown out, however customers can also return their used 3D printed parts to us for a discount on a future pack – to help prevent unnecessary waste from ending up in landfill,” Nick concludes.
This festive season, Aussies are being encouraged to ditch the traditional Christmas cracker and #EntertainDifferently with Bonbon Fusion’s Australian-made bonbons.
To learn more, head to www.bonbonfusion.com.au.
