Crackers in Waitrose supermarket, South Harrow, £4.
Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Christmas crackers are on sale in supermarkets in England in December ready for Christmas parties and Christmas dinner. They were invented in England in Victorian times and you now find them in other English speaking countries. Doesn't everybody have Christmas crackers?You have them on the table on Christmas Day. You wear the paper hat.
Photo of table with crackers at Fellini Restaurant, Hatch End. Photo by Angela Lansbury copyright.
I half remembered how crackers were invented and went back to check. To my surprise and delight I discovered a landmark in London honours Tom Smith who invented the Christmas cracker. It started out as a bonbon, or sugared almond, wrapped in papers, twisted at both ends. As the popularity of his shops sweets declined, he looked for a way to increase sales. He started with messages, like a fortune cookie. This was so successful that other people copied his sweets.So he found a new way to make his different, after hearing the crackling of a log fire. He introduced the bang. You pull both ends of the cracker and inside is the banger. This is the part I like least. I like the hats, the gifts and the jokes.
To read more detail about Tom Smith the Christmas cracker, go to Wikipedia. I also recall a Ladybird book describing Christmas customs and Christmas crackers.
You can buy cheap crackers, small crackers, huge crackers, crackers with no gifts, crackers with expensive gifts, crackers in which you insert your own gifts.
Nowadays most good restaurants give every guest a cracker. (And only for bargain dinners do you have to make do with one cracker between two people.)
The fountain to the Smith Family is in Finsbury Square. Disappointingly, not in the shape of a huge cracker.
If I ever go there, I shall take a Christmas cracker with me for a photograph with the fountain. If you get there before me please do the same and send me a picture. Let's get cracking.
By the way, don't take Christmas crackers nor fireworks such as sparkler for New Year's Eve on an airplane. Why? Banned. Dangerous. Loads of reasons why not - take your pick.
Finsbury Square is EC1/EC2. The fountain is on the south east corner.
Nearest stations are : Moorgate, Liverpool street, Old Street.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFountain%2C_SE_corner_of_Finsbury_Square_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1126053.jpg
For your amusement:
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/singapore-expat-forum-expats-living-singapore/12147-can-i-buy-christmas-crackers-singapore.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_cracker
Overseas and Singapore
If you are an overseas expat in a country such as Singapore, look for a UK store such as Marks & Spencer, but according to the forums you can find crackers all over Singapore, in the centre and in the outlying suburbs.
I used to look for branches of Harrods in Singapore.
Online and USA
You can also look online.
http://britishislesonline.com/christmas/christmas-crackers/?
In Houston, Texas, USA.
For information from the Tom Smith cracker company:
http://www.tomsmithcrackers.co.uk
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker.
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