I e-mailed the vice president of our department, his secretary, and one of the HR people a few months ago suggesting that the company hand out Christmas crackers for the company party. I thought it would be neat if they stuffed a few with $25 or $50 American Express gift certificates in place of the usual toy. I missed the party because I was waiting for delivery of my MGB project, but I heard nothing about them having crackers.
I had already planned my “vacation” (lots of driving and lots of heavy lifting) when the office pot-luck was announced. While my idea was not used at the company party, they did have crackers at the pot-luck! I heard that everyone had a good time with this “new” thing (since crackers are not generally known in the U.S.). The department director and another director dressed as elves (a scary image – I’ll have to track down the photos!) and there was an English-style Father Christmas. (Oh – The company I work for is owned by an English company.) The VP said there would be a drawing for prizes, but everyone who wanted to participate (i.e., everyone) had to wear their paper crowns from the crackers. So everyone had fun pulling the crackers, and they enjoyed playing with the toys and reading the traditionally-stupid mottos.
Ironically, although it was my idea to have crackers at the party, I wasn’t there to partake of the fun! But our admin did snag a cracker for me, which I found on my desk this morning.
I really wish/hope Christmas crackers would gain in popularity here in the U.S.
I remember having crackers at birthday parties when I was a very small child (I’m talkin’ early '50s here) but then they disappeared for years until recently. First I saw them in mail order catalogs, and now I’m seeing them in several stores. Maybe the disappearance had to do with the gunpowder that makes them “crack.” Heaven knows that the caps for cap guns are completely useless compared to the ones I remember from my childhood.
But it appears that crackers are gaining a foothold as a Christmas treat, and I’m glad, because they are a lot of fun!
When I manage to get to my folks’ town for Christmas, I try to bring crackers with me, as I can find them in THIS town but not in their town. It’s a lot of goofy fun to wear those tissue paper crowns and admire each others’ sayings. Especially when you have some younger (gradeschool and junior high) kids in the group.
OK, I finally have caught on to what these ‘crackers’ are. At first I thought you menat those holiday Ritz crackers! But these are popper thingies with a string you pull to make it explode, right? Crap, how big are these things if you can fit all this fun stuff in them?
No that is not a Christmas Cracker .Crackers consist of a thin card tube , covered by bright coloured paper and contain a "snap " ( a strip of paper containig powder which goes bang when pulled apart ) a small gift , a paper hat and a " joke 2 or motto. Two people pull it part to activate the snap and to get to the contents.
I love crackers and have them every year at my Christmas dinner. This year we had Simpson’s themed crackers ordered from the site Rayne Man listed. It was a great deal of fun! However it did seem a bit weird to be buying crackers from England based on an American show.
I have even made my own in years past. I found some of the snaps on the web and used the cardboard rolls from paper towels along with foil-type wrapping paper and ribbon. Then I stuffed them with all sorts of goodies. No paper crowns though, alas.
