by Paul Myers

This article has been written to shed light on one of the most popular, one of the most essential and at the same time, one of the most unnoticed of Christmas decorations, the humble Christmas cracker.

Thomas J Smith was a sweet maker, baker and pastry chef from London, England. The Christmas Crackers we know today are a direct descendant of his almond sweets, which at the time were sold wrapped in a paper, twisted at either end. Unfortunately for Tom, sweet sales declined and so he set about new ways to new encourage sales of his products.

Traditionally the person that broke off the larger version of the Christmas cracker gets to keep the contents of the tube. Another way of doing it is to crack open two Christmas crackers so each person gets to keep the contents of one.

Tom improved the design by adding two strips of thin cardboard and adding some gunpowder to the ends. When they were pulled, they produced the crack and in the early days, also produced a small spark. This was the break through he was looking for. Things then moved on quickly, he increased the size of the wrapping to incorporate the banger mechanism; eventually the sweet was dropped altogether and replaced by a small wooden gift.

Tom originally named his invention a 'cosaque', this was because the bang or cracking sound reminded him of the sound of a Cossack whip. His invention grew in popularity, eventually becoming known as the Christmas cracker. As awareness and subsequent popularity of the product grew, so did Toms business, eventually leading him to open a dedicated factory to keep up with the demand.

Christmas crackers were invited by Tom Smith in London of 1847. He wrapped his traditional bon-bon sweets in a twist of brightly colored paper, resembling a sweet wrapper of today's world. As his bon-bon sales dropped, Smith tried to promote sales by slipping pieces of paper into the wrappers, much like a fortune cookies. This did not go over that well, and again sales dropped.

Watching a log burning in his fireplace pop and crackle, he decided to try to reproduce the effect in his sweet. During the experimental process he burned half of his furniture down and also burnt his hands. Finally, he took two strips of thin cardboard and pasted some salt petre on them. When they pulled away, they produced the crack and spark that he was looking for. - 39969