One lovely British Christmas tradition is to pop a Christmas Cracker – a cylindrical fire cracker of sorts that has a small gift inside, a paper crown and some kind of joke.
Last year was our first year with Christmas crackers and our family had a ton of fun cracking them open and laughing at each other wearing the paper crowns.
So, the biggest question I get is – where in the United States of America can you buy Christmas Crackers?
Well, it depends. Some states consider them fireworks and they aren’t allowed to be sold.
However, in enlightened states like Indiana – you can pick them up at stores like Target or a fireworks store. We got ours last year at the local Target. Also, this year I noticed Costco has them as well.
You can also order them online from somewhere like Tom Smith – the ultimate Christmas Cracker maker. I opted for this option this year and ordered my crackers online, they arrived pretty quickly and they look beautiful!
There’s plenty of time to order – check out Tom Smith Christmas Crackers.
Here’s a bit of history of the Christmas Cracker from the Wikipedia:
Christmas crackers or bon-bons are an integral part of Christmas celebrations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and other Commonwealth countries as well as countries of the former Soviet Union. A cracker consists of a cardboard tube wrapped in a brightly decorated twist of paper, making it resemble an oversized sweet-wrapper. The cracker is pulled by two people, and, much in the manner of a wishbone, the cracker splits unevenly. The split is accompanied by a small bang produced by the effect of friction on a chemically impregnated card strip (similar to that used in a cap gun).
In one version of the tradition the person with the larger portion of cracker empties the contents from the tube and keeps them. In another each person will have their own cracker and will keep its contents regardless of whose end they were in. Typically these contents are a coloured paper hat or crown; a small toy or other trinket and a motto, a joke or piece of trivia on a small strip of paper. Crackers are often pulled before or after Christmas dinners or at parties.
Assembled crackers are typically sold in boxes of three to twelve. These typically have different designs usually with red, green and gold colours. Making crackers from scratch using the tubes from used toilet rolls and tissue paper is a common Commonwealth activity for children.Crackers were invented by Thomas J. Smith of London in 1847.[1][2] He created the crackers as a development of his bon-bon sweets, which he sold in a twist of paper (the origins of the traditional sweet-wrapper). As sales of bon-bons slumped, Smith began to come up with new promotional ideas. His first tactic was to insert mottos into the wrappers of the sweets (cf. fortune cookies), but this had only limited success.
He was inspired to add the “crackle” element when he heard the crackle of a log he had just put on the fire. The size of the paper wrapper had to be increased to incorporate the banger mechanism, and the sweet itself was eventually dropped, to be replaced by a small gift. The new product was initially marketed as the Cosaque (i.e., Cossack), but the onomatopoeic “cracker” soon became the commonly used name, as rival varieties were introduced to the market. The other elements of the modern cracker, the gifts, paper hats and varied designs, were all introduced by Tom Smith’s son, Walter Smith, to differentiate his product from the many copycat cracker manufacturers which had suddenly sprung up.
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I realised that crackers aren’t a standard American part of Christmas, but to have to buy them from a fireworks store sounds really wierd!
Okay, so they go bang, but they’re less explosive than one single match and I can buy a whole box of matches (and a box of crackers, come to think of it) from my local supermarket!
Or maybe their sale is restricted in certain US States because they’ve realised how BAD the jokes inside are?! I still love crackers, though!
Anna x
P.S. Typical British joke found inside a cracker – What’s the difference between a jailer and a jeweller? One sells watches, the other watches cells.
In recent years I’ve found them at Walmart, of all places, with the New Year’s Eve stuff! Unfortunately that means they sometimes don’t put them out until after Christmas.
You can purchase them at a shop here in Lawrence, KS called “Brits” — who also have a great online store: http://www.britsusa.com/
You can also buy them from Absolutely Crackers they can deliver to the US, they have a large selection of crackers including Tom Smith. Their website is:
http://www.absolutelycrackers.com
Stephen
Don’t forget to check with your local British Shoppe or tearoom. Start your search with Anglotopia’s “Brit Business in USA’.
I picked my Tom Smith crackers at Costco yesterday.
You can find them at GillianCrackers too! We fill the crackers in keeping with the original Victorian tradition with games, puzzles, sweets, paper hat and a Christmas tree decoration. We deliver throughout Canada and the USA.
Cheers!
Also if anyone has a World Market near by (an excellent store for buying international items) they carry a good selection of Christmas crackers every year! http://www.worldmarket.com
I just came by to say that, though I know it by its older name, Cost Plus. Great minds think alike!
I spotted them in our World Market last week. They had several options, including mini ones and regular-sized ones. We only have three in our family, so I was resisting buying a huge package of them, but I suppose I could take a few to co-workers. I had crackers when I lived in Scotland as a child, but my Anglophile hubby (who only visited the UK for the first time three years ago), has only heard of them, he’s never had any.
I saw them at Cost Plus World Market here in the Pacific Northwest. Lots of U.K. goodies as well.
Yes, Costco, Cost Plus World Market, Pier One and sometimes Marshalls/TJMaxx carries them also.
I bought some @ MIchaels(the Arts & Crafts Supply store) I got them on sale (for 5 for a buck!) However,it wasn’t around the Holidays,but I’m sure they have them now.
I have found crackers at all the places mentioned but I think I have found the best ones at Marshalls. I have gotten them there the past 3 years. My kids love them.
If anyone has Tuesday Morning stores near them, they carry crackers there every year in many different patterns. That’s where I got mine.