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Christmas Crackers
Since I was a youngster my family usually had Christmas crackers immediately after our meal. I do not necessarily mean only our folks at our house, I mean everyone I can recall to my mind, our aunties, uncles, our grandmother and grandfather. Crackers have grown to be identifiable with Christmas, exactly like the Turkey has become!
I can’t call to mind exactly what the crackers were like or their level of quality, just that we had these each year. What I can think of is the cheap joke and naff plastic presents which were within them. Yet as a young youngster I did not truly worry about that too significantly. I’m sure the fact they exploded was the key factor driving our pleasure and not actually what was in them. Let’s be honest, how often are youngsters allowed to set off bangers within their Gran’s home at the dining room table which was actually what we were participating in. And not only this, the older people joined in too!
Obviously it is evident that the moment the crackers were torn in two the euphoria was over quickly. Firstly you’ll discover a cracker keepsake within which can merely be referred to as crap to tell the truth. They were often built of plastic and very cheap and tacky. Usually there was a tiny cheap novelty of some sort, a single dice (they’re usually useful aren’t they) and I recall to my mind one Christmas getting one of those plastic soldiers with a nasty parachute! In actual fact I was very excited to receive one of these until finally it ended up dangling from a telephone line in my street.
Inside the crackers were the customary cracker crown which which always managed to tear somewhere as you tried to place it on top of your head. Even as a small tot the cracker hat would rip and I grew up believing my head was unnaturally big for a toddler of our age! Last but not least there was the crappy joke that were usually hilarious for those between the ages of 5 and 10. Any younger and the jokes were meaningless, any older and they made you cringe.
Were my friends and family the only ones which had an dad who actually knew the answers and when he didn’t he spent the next couple of hours trying to work them out!
But the more mature I got the more I disliked low priced Party cracker and I remember wondering about splashing out on some luxury Party crackers. While I was doing our Christmas shopping each year I observed more luxury Xmas crackers were appearing in every high street store.
In the end I gambled and used my wages on a luxury box of 6 Seasonal crackers. I seem to recall they were bigger than the standard size Christmas crackers however were beautifully produced using fancy papers and quality ribbons and bows. On the bottom of the display box was a picture showing the toys within which were really impressive in the photo. They were fillers of some use like silver items, fancy trinkets, mini clocks, a watch, tools and often gifts of a very high standard.
I imagine the fact they were never failed constructed from silver plate gave rise to the suggestion the gift was of better quality. And to be fair they were surely better than a throwaway toy soldier!
The corny joke has stayed and so has the paper hat yet to be honest the quality of cracker hat has advanced and some high quality Christmas crackers now include a gold and silver foil hats no less.
So the Xmas cracker has managed to move on from the days of low build quality to high end Xmas crackers which have increased in size and quality, packed with high quality gifts and made to a very high standard. And confirmation from recent research would confirm our appreciation of luxury Christmas crackers has not declined as well as sales and profits keep on growing year on year.
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