Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2014/January 2015 | Page 27
RYDE
Pull the other one...
S
o you are about to tuck into your
Christmas Day lunch, turkey and
all, but there is still one pre-meal
tradition that many go through which has
been around for more than 150 years.
You pull a Christmas cracker with the
person sitting next to you, and inevitably
stick the paper hat on your
head, see what trinket or
gadget has fallen out, and
read aloud the corniest of
jokes. Christmas crackers were
first made around 1850, and
remain a traditional Christmas
favourite here on the Island
and throughout the UK.
London sweet maker called
Tom Smith is reported to
have made the first cracker.
He saw the French 'bon bon'
sweets during a trip across the
Channel, went back to London
and tried selling sweets like
that, also including a small
motto or riddle with the sweet.
Alas, they didn't sell very well, but one
night, while he was sitting in front of his
log fire, he became very interested by the
sparks and cracks coming from the fire.
He thought what fun it would be, if his
sweets and toys could be opened with
a crack when their fancy wrappers were
pulled in half.
Crackers were originally called 'cosaques'
and were thought to be named after the
'Cossack' soldiers who had a reputation
for riding on their horses and firing guns
into the air!
When Tom died, his expanding cracker
business was taken over by his three sons,
Tom, Walter and Henry. Walter introduced
the hats into crackers and he also travelled
around the world looking for new ideas
for gifts to put in the crackers.
The company built up a big range of
'themed' crackers. There were ones for
bachelors and spinsters where the gifts
were such bizarre items as false teeth and
wedding rings. There were
also crackers for Suffragettes
- women who campaigned
to get women the vote - war
heroes and even Charlie
Chaplain. Crackers were also
made for special occasions
like Coronations. The British
Royal Family still has special
crackers made for them.
Very expensive crackers
have been made, such as the
'Millionaire's Crackers' which
contained a solid silver
box with a piece of gold
and silver jewellery inside.
Cracker manufacturers also
made large displays, such as
horse drawn carriages and sleighs, for the
big shops in London. So when you pull
that flimsy piece of paper in half this year,
and read the joke aloud, just remember it’s a cracker!
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