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The Origins of the Christmas Cracker
A Christmas story
that started during a Family Holiday in
Paris...
By
unexpected chance the Christmas Cracker was
devised in 1847 by an English confectioner and
stationery manufacturer, whilst on holiday in
Paris with his family. At a time when
English sweets were still sold loose from the
trays they were made in, his children discovered
the Parisian Bon-Bons - coated sugar lollies
prettily wrapped in a twist of colored paper -
quite a novelty and rather more hygienic he
concluded. He liked the idea so much that
on his return to England he wrapped his lollies
in similar paper and, unwittingly, started the
redevelopment of "his own" Bon-Bons.
Of course, in
the early days, the crackers were called Bon
Bons - meaning lollies or candies in French -
and as a consequence were still quite small in
size with a fairly plain wrapping. Later he
added a colored outer wrapper and a friction
strip – consisting of two overlapping strips of
cardboard coated with a small amount of
explosive powder
-
that is inside all ordinary
crackers -
and joined together, which became known as a
"snap" because when the cracker is pulled
apart the strips rub across each other setting
off a chemical reaction that produces an audible
bang.
The snap was
also known as
"Silver Fulminante"
a
discovery in 1802 by Dr. Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli
(1761-1818) Professor of chemistry at Pavia
University, Italy.
Et voila "le Crecker"!
At the same
time, as a confectioner, he would have been
familiar with the popular Italian custom of
having a surprise "trinket" inside chocolate
Easter eggs and also with the ancient Chinese
custom of inserting a fortune prediction "motto"
inside the fortune cookies.
By putting all
these simple but novel ideas together,
on his return from the Paris family holiday, the
Christmas Cracker was born complete with a
surprise novelty gift, a trinket, a tissue paper
hat as a party favour, a snap to make a noise or
bang when pulled apart and a piece of paper with
a silly joke or motto - a maxim of appropriate
character to express a principle or ideal suited
to the occasion.
In those
early original crackers, everything was neatly
made by hand. Adept cracker makers would
assemble the papers, roll, glue and tie off
crackers by hand, having put the various
novelties etc. into them.
Then they
would artistically decorate by hand the outer
wrapper with pretty bows and something new and
unusual. A novelty. These novelties and
bows were themselves handmade and the result was
wonderful artistic cracker creations which were
an instant success as an adornment to the
Christmas table.
The practice to celebrate
Christmas with a decorated Christmas
Cracker at each table setting was born and it
became a time-honored established
tradition passed down continuously from
generation to generation of families not
only in England but in
Great Britain and other parts of the World .
Other
manufacturers soon began to imitate Christmas
Crackers and by the turn of the century millions
of Christmas Crackers were produced annually and
with the advent of international distribution
the mass production of Christmas Crackers was
well on the way.
After more
than 15O years, the time-honored tradition of
having a Christmas Cracker" at each place
setting for Christmas still continues, but
because of the use of mass production almost all
crackers have lost their fine individual quality
- no artistry but just generic uniformity - the
designs are flat and not hand decorated as the
original ones and gone is the quality gift
inside. The expertise of generations of
cracker makers has been almost lost to mass marketing
and industrial scale manufacturing.
A
Feast of Elegance
Yet as our company celebrates our
tenth decade
of uninterrupted family business established
since 1923, in our boutique cracker workshop, we still design and make elegant
Christmas Crackers with fine individual quality using methods virtually
unchanged since the advent of the first
Christmas Cracker in 1847. We still make our
Christmas Crackers individually hand-crafted,
hand rolled, hand-decorated and with high quality
gifts inside - be it an amusing
novelty or a piece of serious sterling silver jewellery - a process that is impossible to
replicate
on an
industrial scale.
Old World by tradition
Sparkling and
spontaneous, an IC Christmas Cracker is a
work of art appreciated in many parts of the
World. It is a true luxury Christmas cracker and
stands out from its competitors as it is
timeless, elegant and quintessentially
traditional and it is made with the same
dedication as it was made way back in 1847.
Australian by design
By mixing the charm of the
old with innovative design
and craftsmanship, we have redefined the
style of the Christmas Cracker, marking a
certain evolution from old fashion Christmas
Crackers, but still rigorously individually
hand made, hand rolled and hand decorated by
professionally adept cracker maker artisans. This
reflects our ten decades and four
generations of experience and craftsmanship
in the industry and the distinction of being
the World foremost designers and
manufacturers of high quality Christmas
Crackers which are chosen to grace even the
most Regal of Christmas tables.
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