History of Christmas Crackers — a British Tradition
Smiling family pulling Christmas crackers at the dinner table at home in the living room
For readers not familiar with the British tradition of Christmas crackers: they are brightly colored paper tubes that are placed on each plate at Christmas parties. The tube, when pulled on each end, it breaks open with a cracking – exploding – sound. A paper slip with a joke and a paper crown fall out.
Christmas crackers were invented by Thomas Smith in 1846 when he was visiting Paris. He came across a bon-bon, a sugar-almond wrapped in tissue paper. Smith began importing bon-bons to England.
The bob-bons sold well in England at Christmas but not other times of the year.
In the 1850s, Smith started putting mottos in the bob-bons. As bon-bons were often bought by men to give to women, many of the mottos were love poems.
In 1860, Smith added the banger — two strips of chemically impregnated paper that made a cracking sound when pulled apart.
Over time, jokes replaced the love poems.
More information about this can be found on this website: http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/xmas/crackers.html
Examples
Why does Santa have three gardens?
So he can Ho Ho Ho
Why does Santa go down the chimney?
It soots him
What’s Santa’s favorite cereal?
Frosties
Where does Santa stay when he travels?
At the Ho Ho Hotel
Why would you remove your door bell?
To win the no bell prize
How does the Pacific Ocean greet the Atlantic Ocean?
It waves
What did the snowman say to the other snowman who was standing next to him?
I smell carrots
What do you give a railway station master for Christmas?
Platform shoes
