A few years ago myself and a fellow co-worker had the daunting task of planning the annual Christmas office party.  During one of our so-called “planning meetings”, which usually consisted of the two of us sitting in her small apartment eating Chinese surrounded by brochures for music, food and decorations, she brought up the subject of Tom Smith Christmas Crackers. Since we were pretty much decided on the catering aspect for the party I didn’t think too much about it.  Imagine my surprise when she handed me a “Cracker” and I realized it had nothing to do with food.  They’re actually a really fun party favor that have been an enduring British tradition for generations and whose popularity has grown immensely here in the United States (unbeknownst to me).  To this day, it’s a tradition which continues to bring pleasure to all ages, from children to grandparents not only on Christmas, but all through the year.

Here’s a unique insight into how the Christmas Cracker came to be:

The Christmas Cracker was invented in 1847 by Tom Smith, a baker of wedding cakes from Clerkenwell, London. On a trip to Paris in 1840 Smith discovered the “bon-bon”, a sugared almond wrapped in a twist of paper. Back in London, his new sweets became quite popular. When he noticed that young men were buying them for their sweethearts he began to place love mottoes on small slips of paper inside the wrapping. In 1846, standing at his fireplace, the crackle of a log gave him the flash of inspiration for the cracker. After much experimentation, he got it right. He pasted small strips of saltpetre to two strips of thin card. As the cards were pulled away from each other, the friction created a crack and a spark (similar to that used in a cap gun). 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, and much in the manner of a wishbone, the cracker splits unevenly. The split is accompanied by a small bang. Inside the cracker is typically a small toy or other trinket and a motto, a joke or piece of trivia on a small strip of paper.

At the turn of the century, Tom Smith produced crackers not only for the Christmas season, but also to celebrate every major occasion from the The Paris Exhibition in 1900 to War Heroes in 1918 and The World Tour in 1926 of Prince Edward, The Prince of Wales. Contents of the crackers were tailored to each box: grotesque or artistic masks, puzzles, conundrums, tiny treasures, games and mottoes. Most crackers were boxed in beautifully illustrated boxes. All of the crackers - including the hats, from fezzes to sheikhs head dresses, were made by hand. The full illustrated catalogues which date back to 1877 provide an exceptional visual history of British social and political evolvement over an entire century. Today, Tom Smith Group Limited manufactures up to 50 million crackers every year, which are sold throughout the world.

So if you’re like me and thought that the Christmas Cracker was a type of food appetizer, than just think - you’ve not only learned a great history lesson about Tom Smith, but you’ve also got a wonderful tradition to hand down to your children for future generations.