History of Christmas Crackers

Christmas is a festival that brings hope, happiness and mirth in every individual's life. Christmas is a time to celebrate with family and friends. People start preparations for the festival well in advance. They clean their houses and surroundings. The homes are decorated with Christmas lights, wreaths and twigs of evergreen trees. The family goes out together to buy a Christmas tree and decorate it with different ornaments, tinsel in various hues. Parties, feasts and family reunions are associated with Christmas. People enjoy each other's company in welcoming the festival. The entire atmosphere is filled with gusto and fervor.

There are a lot of traditions related to Christmas. One such important tradition is of Christmas cracker. The people from Australia, UK, Canada, South Africa and other commonwealth nations cannot think of Christmas celebration without a Christmas cracker. The Christmas cracker is made out of a cardboard tube that is wrapped in brightly colored, decorated paper. There is a tradition of two individuals pulling the cracker. This makes the cracker to split into two even parts. When the cracker splits, a sweet sound is created accompanied with a spark. The sound produced is crackling. The sound is onomatopoeic in nature. Therefore, the word cracker originated due to the sound.

The crackers were for the first time introduced in the market by Thomas Smith in the year 1847 in London. The crackers were sold as a modified version of bon-bon sweets. The cracker was placed in between two layers of sweet and wrapped in colorful paper. It was a surprise hit among children. With passing of time, Christmas crackers underwent a lot of change. The sweets were replaced by other things. The crackers are usually pulled out before or after Christmas feast and parties. The contents of the cracker are small toys, color paper hat, joke and piece of trivia and so on. All these things are presented in a bright colored decorated paper.

The crackers have a lot of designs and are available in red, green and golden hues. There are some crackers that burst with thunderous sound and give out fire and smoke. They cannot be used indoors. These crackers came in various sizes. This trend of Christmas crackers slowly entered the market and homes of common man. The children as well as elders enjoyed the splitting of Crackers. This led to mass production of Christmas crackers in many manufacturing units. The crackers were such a craze during those days that they were used not only during Christmas but also in various other celebrations.

Ten crackers come in a box. Today, the crackers have modernized with changing times. Therefore, we find small gifts like compact mirror, photo frame, pens, screw drivers, etc. in the crackers.