I Just Learned Why They're Called 'Christmas Crackers', And It's Not Why I Thought

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about why we have Advent calendars, where Christmas trees come from, and what “Yule” really means. 

But to be honest, it was only when I spoke to an American friend recently that I realised “crackers” is a bit of a funny name to call the Christmassy cardboard tubes which contain little toys and bad jokes. 

After all, they don’t really “crack”; it’s more of a “bang” (though I guess “bangers” is already taken by another British institution, sausages). 

So I’m glad Mandy Roscoe from the Greater Manchester printing firm, Carrick Signs, has explained where the word came from. 

Why are they called “Christmas crackers”? 

“The snap strip was first introduced by cracker-maker Tom Smith in the 19th century,” Roscoe shared. 

“Like any printer, he wanted to differentiate his creations from simple wrapped treats by giving them theatrical flair.” 

He was inspired, the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum explained, to sell French bonbons, which were wrapped in paper, at Christmas. 

These became a hit. But Smith wasn’t satisfied; he wanted his product to stand out further, so he added the popping strip, a range of beautiful designs, and gifts. 

“His reasoning was that the crackling sound emulated the sound of a Christmas fire, and the idea stuck,” Roscoe said.

His son, Walter, would add hats later on. 

You can see the V&A’s catalogue of Tom Smith’s Christmas cracker designs, dating back to 1875, in their Archive of Art and Design.

And the British Film Institute has put footage of workers making the festive fare in 1910 on YouTube, too.

How do Christmas crackers work, anyway?

According to BBC Science Focus, the mechanism is surprisingly simple. Two strips of paper are placed together end-to-end, with a little overlap. 

In this overlap, there’s some gunpowder – a “mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulphur”. 

And when you pull them apart, the friction it creates makes enough heat to set that powder off. That’s why it goes “bang”. 

By the way, the BBC shared in a separate video that there is a way to “win” Christmas crackers; hold your end lower, and make the other person do all the work, for the best odds.