One of our most established Christmas traditions, crackers are almost always part of a festive gettogether, whether it’s a party or just a Christmas meal. Here in the UK, they are a traditional Christmas favourite, combining paper hats, a small toy or trinket and a joke (usually a bad one!).

But how did all this cracker fun begin? Back in the 19th C., there was a man called Mr Tom Smith, who was a London sweet maker. Around 1845-50, Tom Smith discovered the French ‘bonbon’s’ – sugared almonds wrapped in pretty paper. Well, he thought, why not bring this idea to England and wrap his sweets in pretty paper? This continental idea seemed a good one. So, on his return, he tried this, however, unfortunately, it wasn’t well received. But our Mr Smith was not easily daunted, so he spent some time thinking about how he could improve the packaging of his sweets. As legend would have it, Tom was sitting by his log fire, one dark winter’s night, idly watching the flames as they crackled over the wood, and he had a sudden idea. Now, what if, he thought to himself, what if he could combine the crackle of the fire with his sweet wrappers? So that when they were pulled apart, there was a small ‘crack’ sound? The rest, as they say, is history.

The cracker evolves…… Upon Tom Smith’s death, his sons, Henry, Tom and Walter took over the family cracker business and, showing the same entrepreneurial spirit as their father, they expanded the cracker even more. They added more things into the cracker, so as well as sweets, there were also paper hats, a small trinket of some kind and a fortune telling message written on a minute piece of paper (this then became the jokes we get today). However, by this time, rival businesses were beginning to cotton on to this popular cracker idea. In an effort to stay ahead of the game, the Smith brothers travelled the world looking for inspiration for their cracker contents, and this spawned the idea of themed crackers. They developed crackers for spinsters and bachelors, war heroes and even Suffragettes. For the wealthy there was the ‘Millionaire’s Crackers’, the ‘crack’ would reveal a solid silver box with an item of gold or silver jewellery inside. These themed crackers proved very popular, and the products we see today are not too far removed from them. Further evolution of the cracker saw manufacturers display their wares within traditional scenes, usually for the big shops of London, which is how crackers became synonymous with Christmas.
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Some examples of the famously poor cracker jokes:
Q: Why does Santa have three gardens? A: So he can ‘ho, ho, ho’!
Q: Why did Santa’s helper see the doctor? A: Because he had low ‘elf’ esteem!
Q: What do you call a Christmas cat in the desert? A: Sandy Claws!
Q: What did the sea say to Santa? A: Nothing, it just waved!
FUN FACT: To this day, the British Royal Family still have crackers especially made for them