"This year Tom Smith celebrates the 175th anniversary of the invention of the Christmas cracker.", so I'm told by the website of Tom Smith.
Congratulations, Tom!
But who was Tom and what are Christmas crackers?
Crackers are not part of our German Christmas, here you mostly see them on New Year's Eve. I only know Christmas crackers and paper hats worn during Christmas dinner from British TV shows, but until today I never took the time to find out how this began.
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| Picture from Wikipedia |
It began in 1847 (as you could already tell from the anniversary), but the inspiration came a few years earlier.
On a business trip to Paris in 1840, young confectioner Tom Smith discovered the "bon bon", a sugared almond wrapped in tissue. Tom took the idea home, but found that the "bon bon" mostly sold around the Christmas time. He kept working on the idea to make the most of the short season.
First, the sweets were replaced with little toys and trinkets.
Then the crackle of a log that Tom threw on his fire gave him the idea to turn "bon bons" into crackers and change the name.
They became bigger to make space for the cracking mechanism which developed from the pop to the snap.
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| Picture from Wikipedia |
Christmas designs were developed and the mottoes in the crackers turned from the Victorian love verses to puzzles and finally into the corny jokes of today.
Eventually Tom's three sons took over, and one of them, Walter, introduced the paper hats looking like crowns which are worn during Christmas dinner.
Designs were made for special occasions or as special orders and still are today.
As it seems, people have different traditions around Christmas crackers. Some people decorate the house with them. Some give each one at dinner their own cracker, but obviously you get the best sound if two people pull, one at each end. In that case the person who gets the longer part of the cracker also gets to keep the contents.
I have to admit that I can't remember any occasion when I have pulled or even seen a cracker in person.
What's funny is that the German word for them, "Knallbonbon", "Knall" meaning pop or crack, still has the "bonbon" part. Actually we mostly use that word not for chocolate bonbons, but hard candy.
Back to the crackers, maybe I should try one out for Christmas myself this year?
References:
History of the Christmas cracker (archived web article from the old Tom Smith website)
Tom Smith Crackers website - Brand
I've had the experience of them twice but I was so disappointed in them because I expected the trinkets, etc. to be so much more than what I got. Sort of how Cracker Jacks has evolved. When I was a child, there were cute little toys in the box but now it is all stickers and trash. Still and all, they are festive and fun for the littles who have no expectation of what is inside! I did not know the history though! And, I was surprised to read that you have them in Germany! I did not see this when I lived there.
ReplyDeleteYes, without expectations they are probably a lot more fun. I like that it's such an old tradition!
DeleteThinking about it, I can only remember them from the fireworks pop-up stores that took over the closed ice cream parlors before New Year's Eve. I don't remember if I have ever seen them in a supermarket or a toy store or something like that, but I probably never paid much attention, either.
Some years I spend a lot of time trying to find ones that do have something more interesting or better quality last year I had recycled crackers and the gifts were wooden toys and puzzles. I think this years are crap but the crackers are pretty!
ReplyDeleteSo it is a tradition in your house, how fun!
DeleteRecycled crackers sound interesting as well, I wouldn't have thought there is something like that. Very cool!
I wonder what my family would say if I brought crackers and crowns along this year!
Go for it... not sure how easy they will be to find in Germany. It is not a tradition to a lot of people in Canada. Last year one of the people we ate Christmas dinner with had never had one before and she was in her 50's. I'd mail you some but they wouldn't get there in time and the shipping would be horrendous due to box size! One year I had a set that had musical horns in them 9 horns and some music... I can't say that my family performed in the least bit brilliantly. My mother was awful and my son was worse!
DeleteI think I might be able to order some online. There are "English shops" in Germany which will make it a lot easier!
DeleteThe idea of all of you performing is brilliant, thank you for sharing that!
I had not heard of Christmas crackers before now and when I first saw the photo, I thought they were small firecrackers. Maybe they were inspired by firecrackers since they make a pop/crack when opened? That is a fun tradition but not one that we have in America to my knowledge.
ReplyDeleteMade you learn something! ;-)
DeleteThe pop came after the first introduction of them, so maybe the firecracker design was inspired by these originally? That would be interesting to find out!
Interesting you should post this, because I recently saw these in a British show. I wasn’t aware of them before. Thanks for sharing the history.
ReplyDeleteMichelle
https://mybijoulifeonline.com
I guess we all learned something! :-D
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