I'm sure it may surprise you to know that the name Christmas crackers was derived from the word Cosaque

This is what they were called after Tom Smith invented them in the mid 1800's. And amazing as it may seem 'Russian soldier' in French is Cosaque!

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!

When a cracker is pulled apart the snap inside the cracker makes a noise which is supposed to sound like the crack from a Cossack soldier's whip! At the end of the French Russian war this was how the French referred to the noise from the Cossacks whips.

Let's return to the creator of the much loved Christmas cracker here in the UK, Tom Smith. 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. Tom Smith was already selling confectionery successfully from his London shop and he thought the bon-bons would be a popular addition to his shop. Tom Smith had some early success with his newly acquired bon-bons but felt they could be improved upon and at the beginning of the following year he started to add a motto inside the crackers. He got this idea from an old Chinese tradition where cakes were made and filled with a message of goodwill during a festival celebrating the August Moon.

Small gifts and novelties started to be included in Christmas crackers which as Tom Smith envisaged at the time would be very popular with the Victorians at the time. What started life as a French sweet named after a Russian soldier evolved into a Christmas cracker which was bigger and filled with novelty gifts and a joke!Know more about Christmas crackers

However he wasn't finished there and it is considered that Tom Smith searched for a number of years to make his Christmas crackers more exciting.

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.

It is not known the exact date when the first Christmas crackers with snaps inside were sold but by 1860 they were being sold.

And here we are in the 21st century and the humble Christmas cracker is still loved as much as it was 160 years ago! Read more on Crackers

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