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Thursday, October 6th, 2011

5:03 am

'Cosaque' is the original name for Christmas crackers This is what they were called after Tom Smith invented them in the mid 1800's. Which is French for Russian soldier. It would be rather amusing if we still used the original name for Christmas crackers. That way all the TV and magazine advertising would revolve around Russian soldiers! The name Cosaque was used because it referred to the banger inside the cracker which apparently sounds similar to the noise of a whip when cracked by the Cossack soldiers when riding their horses. After the French-Russian war the French soldiers never forgot the sound of the Cossack whips and this is how they related to the sound. Back to Tom Smith who is credited for the creation of the Christmas Crackers we love so much here in the UK today. In 1847 Tom returned to the UK after a trip to France and he brought with him some bon bons which are French sweets wrapped in bright coloured papers. He was already a successful confectioneer back in London and thought these bon-bons would be a success back in the UK for Christmas. They were an instance success but Tom didn't stop there. He was always looking to improve his sweets and he came up with the idea of inserting a motto inside the bon-bons which has now become our Christmas cracker jokes! To be honest the Chinese had been using a motto during their celebrations of the August Moon. They woould bake cakes especially for this festival and insert a motto inside the cake. This is what inspired Tom Smith to put a motto inside his bon-bons. He then started to add small novelty gifts inside the Christmas crackers which he knew would be loved by the Victorian people. So what started as a French bon-bon wrapped in paper grew into a large Christmas cracker filled with a gift and motto. Tom continued to think of ways to improve his new creation. And it is said he got his final piece of inspiration when a log on his fire cracked! For the next two years Tom spent all his time trying to get chemicals to explode and bang when they were rubbed together. Christmas crackers were being sold from around 1860 with bangers inside them although we don't know exactly when Tom Smith finally succeeded with his cracker snap inventtion.Know more about Christmas crackers And here we are in the 21st century and the humble Christmas cracker is still loved as much as it was 160 years ago! (Comment on this)