History of the Christmas cracker!

Christmas crackers are a fun Christmas tradition in the UK and other Commonwealth countries.

A cracker consists of a cardboard tube wrapped in a brightly decorated twist of paper, making it resemble an oversized sweet-wrapper. The cracker is pulled by two people, makint it split unevenly. The split is accompanied by a small bang produced by the effect of friction on a chemically impregnated card strip.

In one version of the tradition the person with the larger portion of cracker empties the contents from the tube and keeps them. In another each person will have their own cracker and will keep its contents regardless of whose end they were in. Typically these contents are a coloured paper hat or crown; a small toy or other trinket and a motto, a joke or piece of trivia on a small strip of paper. Crackers are often pulled before or after Christmas dinners or at parties.

We now know what they are, but, what's their origin?

Tom Smith, a baker of wedding cakes from Clerkenwell, London, invented the Christmas cracker in 1847. The events that led to these wonderful creations were quite a story. In 1940, Smith went to Paris and came across 'Bon bon', an almond sweet wrapped in paper that was twisted. He liked the taste
so much that he began selling the 'new' sweets in London and they became very popular. Tom, who was always on a lookout for new promotion opportunities, noticed that his sweet had become popular gifts for loved ones and sweethearts of young men. Chinese fortune cookies inspired him to introduce small slips of paper inside the wrapping that had love mottos on them.

By 1846, he had become a successful businessman. One day, while he was enjoying the warmth of his fireplace, the crackle of a log gave him a new idea. He started experimenting to try to reproduce it in his sweets. In his pursuit, there were many failures and on certain occasions even his furniture and hands were burnt. Finally, he got it right. He took two strips of thin card and pasted small strips of salt petre on them. When these cards were pulled away, they produced a crack and a spark. Within a year, Tom's latest inventions had become a fashion. The sweets were first called 'Cosaques' after the cracking of the Cossack's whips. It was only after a decade that they came to be known as Christmas crackers.

Christmas crackers became so popular that many competitors sprung up in the market. The designer and colorful wrappers were used as promotional techniques and they were sold by half-a-dozen and one dozen packs in matching boxes. Thus, Tom Smith was virtually forced to get his designs patented and his company came to be known as the Tom Smith Crackers. By 1880s, Smith's company had already produced over hundred cracker designs. By 1900, Smith had sold more than 13 million crackers that were not only used at Christmas but also at other festivities, fairs and coronations. Tom later added small toys to his crackers. In 1933, printed foil wrappers were introduced and then as the designs evolved glass pendants, brooches, bracelets and other jewellery were included in the collections.