International Crackers Origins

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 London 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 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. - (also known as "Silver Fulminante " a discovery in 1802 by Dottore Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli 1761-1818 Professor of chemistry at Pavia University, Italy) - 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, after his 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 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. 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 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 produce 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 machinery, 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 lost to mass marketing and industrial scale machine manufacturing.

Yet as our company celebrates our ninth decade of uninterrupted family business established since 1923, we still design and make elegant Christmas Crackers 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 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.

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.

This year, we have designed one of the world's premier luxury Christmas cracker ranges chosen to grace even the most Regal of Christmas tables. By mixing the charm of the old with innovative Australian 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 makers. This reflects our nine decades and four generations of experience and craftsmanship in the industry and the distinction of being one of the World foremost designers and manufacturers of Premier Luxury Christmas Crackers.