In 1861 Tom Smith launched his new range of what he called ‘Bangs of Expectation’!

Legend says that, one night, while he was sitting in front of his log fire, he became very interested by the sparks and cracks coming from the fire. Suddenly, he thought what a fun idea it would be, if his sweets and toys could be opened with a crack when their fancy wrappers were pulled in half.

However, looking into the history of the Tom Smith company, it’s thought that Tom actually bought the recipe for the small cracks and bangs in crackers from a fireworks company called Brock’s Fireworks. The story of him sitting by the fire was probably added to help sell his new items.

Crackers were also nicknamed called ‘cosaques’ and were thought to be named after the ‘Cossack’ soldiers who had a reputation for riding on their horses and firing guns into the air.

When Tom died, his expanding cracker business was taken over by his three sons, Tom, Walter and Henry. Walter introduced the hats into crackers and he also traveled around the world looking for new ideas for gifts to put in the crackers. The crowns might have been inspired from Epiphany cakes from Europe which are often decorated with a paper crown on the top.

The company built up a big range of ‘themed’ crackers. There were ones for bachelors and spinsters (single men and women), where the gifts were things like false teeth and wedding rings! There were also crackers for Suffragettes (women who campaigned to get women the vote), war heroes and even Charlie Chaplain! Crackers were also made for special occasions like Coronations. The British Royal Family still has special crackers made for them today!

Very expensive crackers were made such as the ‘Millionaire’s Crackers’ which contained a solid silver box with a piece of gold and silver jewerly inside it!

Cracker manufacturers also made large displays, such as horse drawn carriages and sleighs, for the big shops in London.

The Christmas Crackers that are used today are short cardboard tubes wrapped in colorful paper. There is normally a Cracker next to each plate on the Christmas dinner table. When the crackers are pulled – with a bang! – a colorful party hat, a toy or gift and a festive joke falls out! The party hats look like crowns and it is thought that they symbolise the crowns that might have been worn by the Wise Men.

source: whychristmas.com

Egészítsd ki a Christmas Cracker-ekben található vicceket a megadott opciók alapján.
source: Christmas Jokes, whychristmas.com

useful information:

nickel –  (in the US and Canada) a coin worth five cents
soot –  a black powder composed mainly of carbon, produced when coal, wood, etc. is burned
to soothe – to make someone feel calm or less worried:
to wrap –  to cover or surround something with paper, cloth, or other material
platform shoes –  a style of shoe with a very thick high sole (= bottom part)
clue –  a sign or some information that helps you to find the answer to a problem, question, or mystery
crisp –  hard enough to be broken easily
Kris Kringle –  Santa Claus
source: Cambridge Dictionary

I. Match the jokes with the punchlines.

II. Fill in the gaps with the missing words.

Blackmail

It was coming up to Christmas and Sammy asked his mum if he could have a new bike. So, she told him that the best 1 ……………….. would be to write to Santa Claus. But Sam, having just played a vital role in the school nativity play, said he would 2 ……………….. to write to the baby Jesus. So his mum told him that would be fine.
Sam went to his room and wrote ‘ Dear Jesus, I have 3 ……………….. a very good boy and would like to have a bike for Christmas.’ But he wasn’t very happy when he read it over. So he 4 ……………….. to try again and this time he wrote ‘Dear Jesus, I’m a good boy 5 ……………….. of the time and would like a bike for Christmas.’ He read it back and wasn’t happy with that one either. He tried a third version. ‘Dear Jesus, I could be a good boy if I tried hard and 6 ……………….. if I had a new bike.’ He read that one too, but he still wasn’t satisfied.
So, he decided to go out for a walk 7 ……………….. he thought about a better approach. After a short time he passed a house with a small statue of the Virgin Mary in the front garden. He crept in, stuffed the statue under his coat, hurried home and hid it under the bed. Then he wrote this letter. ‘Dear Jesus, If you want to see your 8 ……………….. again, you’d better send me a new bike.’

I. 1-c 2-e 3-a 4-f 5-b 6-d

II. 1-f 2-c 3-g 4-a 5-h 6-b 7-e 8-d

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