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Gold wants your topical festive funnies as it launches the 12th year of its annual ‘Christmas cracker competition’

It’s that time of the year again – already! – when TV channel Gold challenges the nation to come up with a topical gag funny enough to make it into a very special box of Christmas crackers.

It’s the 12th year of Gold’s Christmas Crackers joke competition, asking the great British public to write their funniest festive jokes inspired by the events of the last 12 months.

Top prize is £1,500 worth of experience and travel vouchers and a bespoke set of Christmas crackers featuring the winning jokes, all of which is guaranteed to make your festive celebrations go with a bang!

Last year’s winning joke, chosen by a public vote, shone a light on the cake-related chaos the British Museum experienced in 2023.

‘Did you hear about the Christmas cake on display in the British Museum? It was Stollen.’

We’re not kidding when we say it’s been another eventful 12 months, from the Paris Olympics to the Oasis reunion, a year in which we said hello to Brat Summer and goodbye to Tommy Fury and Molly Mae’s romance.

Your mission – of course you will choose to accept it! – is to get the country chuckling over Christmas lunch (or dinner, if you prefer) and keeping everyone’s spirits high this festive season.

The competition is open from today (7 October 2024) until 11.59pm on Monday 21 October 2024.

Entries must be made by tweeting original, witty and family-friendly Christmas jokes with the hashtag #GoldCrackers. All entrants must be following @GoldChannel on X (formerly Twitter, to be able to contact winners).

The winner will receive £1,500 experience and travel vouchers, a festive-themed food and drink hamper, with their joke included in a personalised set of crackers ready to pull on the big day.

The nine runners-up will each receive a festive Christmas hamper and a box of bespoke Gold Christmas crackers, including the top six winning jokes.

The best jokes will be shortlisted by a panel led by comedy critic and editor of comedy website Beyond The Joke, Bruce Dessau, who said:

‘Each year I look forward to seeing the latest festive funnies from the British public – the entries never fail to bring a smile to my face!

‘The contest provides the opportunity to reflect on the last 12 months, and to find the humour in some of the many eventful cultural moments. I look forward to seeing what people come up with this year!’

Jokes must be in short form content (fewer than 140 characters), original content and with no swear words or offensive content. Multiple entries are allowed.

Gerald Casey, Gold, Director of Programming – Comedy and Entertainment said:

‘At Gold we love when this time of year comes around and we get to challenge the nation to come up with some cracking Christmas jokes – it really marks the start of the festive season for us.

‘We’ve been running this competition for well over a decade, and each year the standard of jokes just gets better and better. Here’s to another year of giggle-worthy gags!’

* For further information on the terms and conditions, you can find everything you need here.

Image Pexels Karen Laårk Boshoff