another weird British custom
Until last week, I wasn’t aware that Christmas crackers are not a seasonal accessory familiar to our American cousins.
I was alerted to this by a review of my Christmas story-verse “A Year Before Christmas“. The dedication is “To Digger, who wasn’t afraid of Christmas crackers.”
I’ve since discovered a history of Christmas crackers on the bitaboutbritain blog at https://bitaboutbritain.com/the-custom-and-origins-of-christmas-crackers/ which I’d like to share with my American readers. Do go and read it if you’re interested.
You will find explanations of many aspects of the traditional British Christmas listed at https://bitaboutbritain.com/christmas-posting-2019/ , and other information about Britain and its quirks on the rest of this website
Writing Wrinkles, and Random Ramblings 
Christmas crackers are a holiday tradition in our family 🙂
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And ours. Sadly, our old Staffie used to be reduced to a quivering jelly by the bangs (and Prosecco corks popping). It’s the one positive aspect of her geriatric deafness that she is no longer frightened by fireworks and thunderstorms.
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awwww………that is so sad, I hate to hear of animals being scared.
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I have wondered for some time what these were but never took the time to find out until I followed your very helpful link. It is tough to know what traditions we have that you don’t since I assume, as you did with the crackers, that everyone does the same thing!
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I suppose, if I think about it, it’s obvious they must be post-revolution and until TV we followed different paths from then.
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That makes sense.
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in the United States, it has been a tradition to have multiple professional basketball games on TV on Christmas day. not sure what that says about our traditions…
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Over here it’s football on Boxing Day (soccer to you, on 26th)
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I was thinking there may be something football related around the holidays over in the U.K.
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There is always something football related on somewhere.
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🙂
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Folks in the US don’t do Christmas crackers? I had always assumed they were just as popular over there… oops! I’m actually not sure if I know the history of how they came about, or if it’s one of those factoids that got buried in my subconscious and I’ve forgotten. I’m just having a look through the blog you linked to now. Thought I’d share one of the cracker jokes on there :
What do you call a bunch of chess players bragging about their games in a hotel lobby?
Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.
xx
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Don’t you just love ’em? What’s it called when Santa gets a sore throat? Tinsellitus
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