Christmas Crackers are essential to many British families Christmas celebrations. They were invented in the mid 1800’s. I remember being about eight the first time I read about crackers without prizes inside. I couldn’t figure out how or why people would do that to a saltine.
The cracker is actually a cardboard tube wrapped in holiday paper. Inside the tube is a folded tissue paper hat, a small toy or two and a joke. Some people say the paper hats are crowns that symbolized the Three Wise Men.
There’s also a strip of cap gun paper attached. Two people pull on opposite ends of the cracker, the paper tears setting off that cap gun paper. The paper makes a loud crackle or bang. The person holding the biggest piece of the cracker gets what’s inside. You keep going until everyone has broken open a cracker. Or you can have everyone cross arms and pull on each other’s crackers at the same time. Or can have everyone pull their own crackers. Small children will need help.
We do crackers at lunch on Christmas day. To be honest, the jokes are lame, and the prizes are tiny bits of plastic junk. The hats are kind of cute and fun, though. My kids love the bang when the crackers explode. As the mother of three boys, my nerves can do without any additional loud noises. So why do we do this? The main reason is the boys love it. But I also think that by after lunch on Christmas we are tired. The crackers are a bit of excitement and fun. We laugh at each other in the silly hats. We laugh or groan at the jokes. It erases any grumpiness from little ones who didn’t get enough sleep.
Instead of buying crackers, you can custom make your own out of toilet paper tubes and leftover tissue paper or wrapping paper. You can pick out favorite kinds of toys or trinkets to go inside—something like toy dinosaurs or pretty hair ribbons, or a special chocolate. Older children love to pick out the prizes and help make these. You can also write your own silly jokes or maybe do scripture verses instead.
So even though we aren’t British, we consider crackers part of our celebration, too.