With just over a month until Christmas, of course the stores are decking themselves out with décor, gifting ideas, wrapping papers, and the like.

It’s so fabulous, that in an expat community, we can easily get hold of Christmas festive goods, without having to struggle to get your hands on a tree, décor and everything Christmas.

And we do expect a bit of a surcharge considering we’re not in a Christian country, for these goods.

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BUT – I’m calling BS on the price of Christmas crackers in this country, they’re officially bonkers.

Everywhere.

This weekend, I ventured to:

• Ace Hardware
• IKEA
• Carrefour
• Spinneys
• Park and Shop

And every.single.place. was charging around AED80 for one six-pack of crackers. AED80!

That’s US$21, €19 or £16 for those playing at home.

And let’s be honest, Christmas crackers are basically a few bits of cardboard, a cheap toy and a terrible joke – they’re not worth US$30 for!

I appreciate that these may have an additional charge for shipping, and they are nice ones, but in my native Australia, they’re rarely more than AED15 for a pack.

It’s insanity.

I guess I’ll just be forgoing the crackers this year, besides, I’ve got enough terrible jokes of my own that I can share.