Witch's Cracker

Now here is an interesting cracker variety!
This illustration is from the Jane Shaw novel, "Family Trouble" 1961.
I found in a blog featuring the author, Jane Shaw.

1900 Romantic Cracker Cartoon

The following 1900 cartoon plays on the romantic connotations 

of the early Victorian Christmas crackers 

which were often filled with love poems and candy.

Click on the image to see a slightly larger rendition.

Entitled: "Good Old Christmas Crackers!"
Published in: "The Big Budget"
London, England
Saturday December 29, 1900; pg 53: Issue 185

Caption:
Ethel (to very bashful lover): "Oh, my Edwin, this one won't pop!"
Young Hopeful:  "Somefink like Edwin hisself, ain't it, Sis?"

Stay tuned for lots of new historical documents
& photos over the coming weeks
Cheers,
♥♥
from your Chief Cracker Elf,
Gillian

Look who came to visit...

What a stunning day out today. I couldn't bear to work the whole day through so I stopped to take a few pics of the sunflowers, beans and verbena but just as I was grabbing the camera...look who came to visit?! Mother only brought one baby and I haven't seen the two babes together for about 6 weeks so one has to wonder if the second one survived. It was very healthy looking but life in the woods has its sad realities. I was delighted to see them again today. Mom was not thrilled with me taking so many pictures and decided to 'hi-tail' it out of there and over the railway tracks!PS:  Yes, those sunflowers ARE planted in what you think they are!

Cheers Everyone

♥♥

from your Chief Cracker Elf,

Gillian

 

Click on any of the images for a larger view.

Christmas Crackers Advert - Nerlich Catalogue, 1939

These crackers were shown in the Nerlich Catalogue in 1939.
I would think this was the end of the really wonderful crackers. Although they do still have a remnant of elegance about them, the contents clearly show the beginning of mass production with ads emphasizing the 'look' rather than the 'content' of the crackers. So.. it was about HERE when the problems began! :)

If you look in the right hand column of this blog you will see some pages listed. One of them is for posting the annual Elf-Food Prep recipes which I will be adding soon. Feel free to share the recipes and give them a try!  The first ones will my favourite autumn muffins.

Cheers Everyone

♥♥

from your Chief Cracker Elf,

Gillian

Charles Dickens' Christmas Cracker Review

Charles Dickens did so much to capture and shape the Victorian Christmas spirit and continues to this very day to influence the modern holiday celebration through his Christmas-themed novels and, in particularly, the best-known and most-loved one of all - "The Christmas Carol".

In 1898, Dickens' wrote the following review of the then most popular trend of Christmas crackers. It is rather long and flowery so I am paraphrasing for you here but, if interested, please do read the full account following.

You frequently hear me moaning about how awful (in my opinion) the commercial crackers have been for years now - pretty on the outside but empty of anything except poor jokes, plain hats and plastic or metal gizmos.  Dickens, in his time which was the heyday of crackers, had the opposite to say noting how improved crackers had become - no longer merely candy and mottoes wrapped in twists of paper with uncertain snaps (sometimes these used to set tablecloths on fire!):  "But the cracker of other days was but a small affair after all, wrapped up in what seemed like scraps of coloured wall-paper. It often missed fire, and there was nothing within but a bonbon - "pas trop bon " - and a scrap of doggrel...".  It seems we have come full circle?!

Ever the ladies' man, Dickens described the cracker work force: " ... a throng of girls, nicely dressed, and by no means wanting in personal attractions, who are all busily making crackers."

The working conditions sound a bit more idealized than the GillianCrackers Workshop: " It is a charming employment for young women, this making of crackers - everything is clean, and dainty, and pretty about them; there are no noxious fumes or extremes of temperature [my elf staff would disagree with that!]to contend with; and it is a labour light and pleasant, to which the nimble fingers alone are wedded, and which leaves the mind free and unruffled"  Well, I guess maybe...

Then Dickens quotes cracker-maker Tom Smith:  "...there is an immensity of detail about this business". Yes, there are cares upon cares in catering for the amusement of a volatile public - to keep up the supply of novelties and devise always something fresh and taking to pass within the narrow round of a Christmas cracker".  Yes, well now, that sounds a bit more like it. Both are true - 'a labour light' and 'the immensity of detail with cares upon cares'!

My favourite phrase Dickens offered was in his description of the Tom Smith workplace as "this factory of fairy trinkets".  How lovely!
And the most inspiring was the description of the cracker contents: "...all the distinguished head-gear of the British army... the lancer's complicated cap, the helmet and nodding plume of the gold dragoon. For young gamesters there are cards and dice, tops that spin and sing, and little toys of every description. It would be easier, indeed, to set forth what is not, than what is to be found in these wonderful [toy] storerooms". And: "... a doctor's hood and gown... a jester's cap and bells; or a terrier pup, in china; or a balloon, or Professor Baldwin's latest parachute..."  Can you imagine the fun and anticipation of opening crackers such as these?!

So intrinsic were crackers to the Victorian Christmas celebration that advertising for them was found everywhere. Dickens described this: " announced on every hoarding, on the walls of railways stations, in the corridors of hotels and public buildings. Wherever you go you can hardly fail to meet with a reminder of the coming glories of [Christmas] crackers". Oh, don't I wish this were still true though Google, Bing & Yahoo are surely doing their bit in this regard!

I have for years now been offering crackers as 'ice-breakers' at family reunions and in places where people who don't know one another well are meeting for long periods of time - intense periods of conferencing, for instance. Dickens describes this: "...where the box of crackers infuses a new spirit into the assemblage."  Thank you Mr. Dickens - May I borrow that line?

In closing he says, "Such pleasure as the cracker may bring us, is altogether pure and unalloyed, and it may be that you will preserve some little toy or trinket as a souvenir of some of the happiest moments of your life."

Reference:  "All The Year Round"
Conducted by Charles Dickens
December 15, 1898

Ref:  "All the Year Round" found on Google Books"

This publication edited by Charles Dickens until his death in 1870
was then carried on by his son, Charles Dickens, Jr, until 1988 or possibly even until 1895. It is unclear, but this cracker article above is thought to be written by Dickens, Sr. and published posthumously.

Click on the READ MORE button below to the left
to view the remainder of this article.  ♥♥

Eaton's Christmas Cracker Ad 1915

Here is an extensive Christmas cracker ad from the old Timothy Eaton's Dept Store. 15 cents to $1.50 per box? Well, admittedly prices have gone up in 100 years! Notice the heading, "Observe the Prices"!

It's too bad the crackers here weren't presented with better descriptive text in the ad copy but I do like some of the design titles; the box of puzzle crackers being called: "The Jolly Jokers Crackers", for instance. Mmmmm  could I borrow that name... The cracker pictured in the ad is quite pretty and festive - I remember a less fancy version of the fluted edges being widely available even in the 1950's when crackers were often made with stretchy crepe paper.

As with GillianCrackers  some selections included musical toys. The remembrance crackers are a bit of a mystery; they contain 'fancy luggage' - I have trouble packing handbells into tubes - not sure how packing luggage in would go! "Fancy toy jewels" seemed to be a common component of many of the early cracker varieties.

An interesting bit of ephemera and a welcome addition to this blog.

Ref:  http://oldfashionedholidays.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/old-fashioned-christmas-crackers-19151916-canadian-old-fashioned-holidays/

Caley's Christmas Crackers in an Eaton's box
Ref: http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/catalog/cat2206be.shtml#1233465

Popcorn and Cranberry Christmas Tree Garland Kits

This morning I whipped up a popcorn garland to test the bits and pieces that I have gathered for our Popcorn & Cranberry DIY Garland Kits.  Everything tests well though I am thinking of using thinner twine and slightly smaller needles so they pass more easily through the popcorn. I also want to include a second needle so that two people can work together - each from the opposite end or... the twine could be cut in half.   These were even more fun to make than I thought they would be and I just can't wait for you to try them out!

At the moment it looks as if the kits will contain the following:

20 feet of twine
2 needles
25 or more little puff balls or other dear small bits of festive colour
1 pkg of microwavable popcorn
1 small packet of dried cranberries
1 little packet of kleenex ( to wipe sticky fingers! )

1 Garland Kit is included FREE (wow!)
with each order of 5 or more Christmas Eve Crackers
or they can be purchased separately for $4.50 per kit.

Idea:  When you write your Christmas cards this year for mailing, how about finding a brown envelope, addressing it as you would the card, then drop in both the kit and the card.  What a fun & inexpensive way to say "Merry Christmas!"

This is the first year for the kits - they will be very limited.
As the business doesn't make a profit on these, I can't afford to have the other elves make them up for me... so, there will only be available however many kits I can make up in one work day.  ORDER EARLY!!

Now... look down below a couple of pictures to see who visited me today
while I sat on the porch threading popcorn ...

Just never know who is going to turn up at the workshop

as I sat making crackers for you out on the garden porch who appeared? Yes, WILD TURKEYS! These guys walked within a couple of feet of where I was sitting but by the time I grabbed a camera, they were already off and running looking for lunch further along... so, no closeup portraits this time but I will keep an eye out for you!

 

Cheers Everyone

♥♥

from your Chief Cracker Elf,

Gillian

PS:  It's looking like beans again for dinner tonight at the Workshop!
The bees and the humming birds LOVE these scarlet runner bean vines.
This week the vines have been producing about 1 pound of beans every day.

Sunday at the Cracker Workshop...

Busy day here at the workshop... Grabbed an extra hour of sleep and enjoyed the first waking hour just appreciating Sunday... But back to work and multi-tasking ... both printers are going full speed with more jokes and activity sheets happily spewing out of my workhorse HP's, 2 more pots of tomatoes rendering down to juice for the freezer, a load of laundry in, a load of dishes done, watering potted veggies & flowers & propagating 6 new strawberry plants from runners - - -  all more or less simultaneously!

  It's break time now & I am on my way out to the sunny porch for a cuppa coffee and to cut THOUSANDS of jokes down to cracker-size on my lovely new titanium blade cutter. There are a dozen or so new jokes this season. I really hope you enjoy them all!

Happy Sunday to YOU!

Cheers Everyone
♥♥
from your Chief Cracker Elf,
Gillian

     

   

Family Cracker Image from the cover of an 1895 London Illustrated News

Here is a fun cover image from an 1895 edition of the London Illustrated News

of a family opening a box of Tom Smith's Crackers.
Cheers Everyone
♥♥
from your Chief Cracker Elf,
Gillian

Victorian Christmas Cracker Post Card

Victorian Christmas Post Card
Not sure of the date on the cancellation stamp?
Interesting combination of characters!

Ref:  http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/an-interview-with-antique-christmas-decorations-collector-dolph-gotelli/

Here is an updated version with German holiday greeting: 

"froehliche - weihnachten" - "Jolly Christmas"

Illustration by Paul Bommer

Ref:  http://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/12/18/18th-december-christmas-cracker/

♥♥

from your Chief Cracker Elf,

Gillian

Children with Christmas crackers & fancy paper hats - 1908

Look at the wonderful hats that USED to be packed into crackers!
I have so MUCH still to learn about cracker making!



"Christmas Joys for Girls and Boys", A Victorian Christmas book for children, printed in Bavaria by Ernest Nister Condon,
and released in America by E.P. Dutton and Company, New York, around 1908.

REF:  http://tracystoys.blogspot.ca/2010/12/antique-childrens-christmas-book.html

Good Night, All!

♥♥

from your Chief Cracker Elf,

Gillian

Victorian Cracker Production - from the Strand Magazine - Published December 1891

I hope you enjoy this bit of descriptive cracker history. The old 'Strand Magazine' was packed with fiction for both adults and children and contained profiles of well known people along with a substantial humour section - all generously decorated with page after page of original, intricate artwork. The article below might give you a hint of why I feel so passionately about restoring the fun intent of the original Victorian Christmas crackers - and why I rail against the commercial fare being produced for today's marketplace.

Enjoy!♥♥
from your Chief Cracker Elf,
Gillian
PS:  Here is a link to the entire volume 2 July to December 1891

"Christmas Crackers"  

The Strand" Magazine

Published in December 1981

London - Burleigh Street.

Click on the "Read More" button below - to the left -
to read the remainder of this article.



*****

GillianCrackers can now be sent to the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man

SO MANY folks from overseas have requested our holiday crackers in recent years and I am really pleased to say that one of our designs - the Family Classics Cracker - is available for order - until September 15th. It comes (for as long as they last!) in 12 different paper designs and is filled with all the great treats - activity packs, paper hat, quality chocolate, peppermint puff, Christmas decoration.  EXTRA:  For every order of 5 crackers, we include one free copy of our Waiting for Christmas booklet.

You can find out more HERE
And visit the crackers available HERE on our Family Classics Page.

NOTE:  For folks on the Isle of Man, and the Jersey and Guernsey Islands you can order too!  Please use the UK order button...

Colourful Christmas crackers you can eat!

Now HERE is a SWEET Cracker idea - all made from decorated cookies!
No waste to throw out after opening these lovely crackers!
Scrumptious looking - imagine how pretty they would be
decorating the family Christmas tree.

See these at the Cookie Connection

http://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/clip/holiday-party-crackers

Christmas Cracker Hats / Cracker Crowns - by the thousands!

Thousands of holiday paper hats
waiting to be cello-packed with Activity packs.

Every holiday season thousands and thousands of paper hats (some people know them better as "crowns") are handmade for our Christmas crackers - each one involving myriad steps to complete.

The hats are cut down from 20 x 30" pieces of decorative tissue, folded several times before cutting out the hat shapes with a long, sharp utility knife. Each strip is then unfolded, glued, dried, refolded and then finally trimmed. It takes 4-6 full work weeks each year to make enough hats just for the Thanksgiving and holiday season. I also make them for birthdays, weddings, Easter, Valentines, Halloween and a host of other occasions.

It may be a l-o-n-g job but it is also a soothing one! The repeating rhythm gives me a little chance to think about other jobs - what supplies need sourcing, what needs to be added to the activity sheets, how to tweak the advertising campaign. During the winter and early spring, I start saving up old movies and TV series on my  PVR and play them back on the small desk TV as I cut, fold and glue away. I go through the entire West Wing series (one of my all-time favourite TV shows at least once each season while cracker-making!). While working I often imagine folks putting the little paper hats on their heads and how soon it will be before they fall off again! I imagine the kids giggling and the older folks remembering past Christmases and I can smell the turkey and cranberry sauce. This isn't just sales schmaltz - I really do feel all these wonderful things and it's all the better because some of my customers have been with me so long that I can see individual faces and connect the hats with their family members - including all the cats and dogs. And to think I get paid to do this!  :)

Cheers Everyone
♥♥
from your Chief Cracker Elf,
Gillian

Christmas & Solstice

Thanksgiving

Video: "Making Christmas Crackers" 1910

Amazing footage from over 100 years ago showing the Christmas cracker process. Except for the frilly aprons, the picture below pretty much looks like our workshop!  Press the arrow to see the whole film. My favourite bits are about mid-way through. Truly wonderful. I watch it a few times a year for inspiration!  Although this film shows men and women working in a factory, much of the Christmas cracker work until quite recently was completed by women in their homes - not unlike the cottage industry at our workshop! Enjoy!

Cheers Everyone
♥♥
from your Chief Cracker Elf,
Gillian

Christmas Cracker Jokes

I love the little jokes inside Christmas crackers but I have never been a fan of the really goofy, non-seasonal ones which have become the norm in recent decades - the jokes that are so bad one can't even laugh at them!  They really qualify to be called groaners! 

Originally crackers contained "mottos", little expressions of love:

The sweet crimson rose with its beautiful hue Is not half so deep as my passion for you. Twill wither and fade, and no more will seen But whilst my heart lives you will still be its queen!"

Some Shakespearean-themed crackers held quotations from the Bard's plays.

By the end of the 1930's these evolved the jokes we are more accustomed to today. Here is a sampling-Q:  What's round and bad tempered?
 A: A vicious circle.
Q:  Why did the banana go out with the prune?
A:  'Cause it couldn't find a date.
What do you call a penguin in the Sahara desert?
A:  Lost.

Groan.

At GillianCrackers we like to put seasonal jokes in our crackers so they are mostly about snowmen, Santa Claus, holly, winter - that sort of thing...

Q:  What do you get if you cross a Yule Log with a duck?

A:  A Fire Quacker 

Q:   Where do snowmen go to dance?

A:  Snow-balls! 

Q:  What do lions sing at Christmas?
A:  Jungle Bells!

For thanksgiving we love turkey and Pilgrim jokes!

Q: Why did the turkey cross the road? 
A: It was the chicken's day off. 

Q: What's the best dance to do on Thanksgiving?

A: The turkey trot

 

It's all great fun.  I do try to put myself into the place of the people receiving the crackers and how they will feel when they read the jokes so I keep them family-oriented and kid-friendly.

There are some jokes I can't use in the crackers because I don't want to betray the trust of kids young and old who BELIEVE in Santa ( Well, of COURSE we do!!) but I am saving them up and will put them in a special edition of "Bah, Humbug" crackers one year for Santa skeptics who still love Christmas crackers. Here are a couple -The three stages of life:
1) You believe in Santa Claus
2) You don't believe in Santa Claus
3) You are Santa Claus

****

Q:  "Why is Christmas just like a day at the office?
A:  You do all the work and the big guy with the suit gets all the credit."

I also try to filter out jokes which may inadvertently cause hurt.

Q - We had grandma for Christmas dinner?
A - Really? We had turkey!

Most kids would think this is hilarious but for a family who may have lost their Grandma recently this isn't going to bring laughter. So, you see, lots of thinking goes into what makes the grade for GillianCrackers Christmas jokes!

Cheers Everyone!
♥♥
from your Chief Cracker Elf,
Gillian

References:

http://www.victoriana.com/Christmas_Crackers/Victorian_Christmas_Crackers.html
http://www.christmasarchives.org/crackers.html
http://aliso.pntic.mec.es/bmarti21/What%20are%20crackers.html
http://www.thanksgiving-day.org/thanksgiving-day-jokes.html

http://www.worldofchristmas.net/chistmas-jokes/funny-christmas-jokes.html

Batger & Co, Christmas Cracker Mfr, 1748

Batger & Co Christmas Cracker Manufacturer

In recalling the history of the Christmas cracker, most people are familiar with the name of "Tom Smith" but many other large, creative businesses were involved in the design and manufacture of this Victorian treat - some of them located in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

One British company named Batger and Co. sold a wide variety of crackers in highly decorated boxes (as did Tom Smith). Batger and Co. began shop in 1748 at f 566 Cable Street, London, E1. In 1947 they advertised their 75 years of experience in producing "Harlequin" style crackers.

The company's main factory at 566 Cable Street produced jams, bakery sundries and confectionary; best known products being 'Chinese Figs', 'Silmos Lollies', 'Jersey Caramels', and 'John Peel marmalade'. Their second factory manufactured 'Harlequin Christmas Crackers', and all forms of cake decorations for the bakery industry.  as well all manner of cake decorations. Their factory had its own wharf and shipped their raw materials along the Thames River. 

Both factories were badly damaged during air raids on the London Docks during the Second World War so eventually new premises were found at Clapham.

Ref:  http://www.mawer.clara.net/batger.html

Cheers Everyone!
♥♥
from your Chief Cracker Elf,
Gillian

Christmas In Greenland

I am continuing to work tonight on the Activity Sheets for our Peace Christmas Crackers. The variety of world-wide Christmas customs is quiet amazing and I am heartened that so many of the older ones, steeped in tradition and time, are continuing to be preserved in one form or another despite modern times.

Women readers will appreciate this holiday custom from Greenland which I found recently:  "It is traditional on Christmas night that the men look after the women, serving their food and coffee and stirring the meal for them!"  I think this could quickly catch on in N. America.  What do you think?!

Another tradition in Greenland is the widespread use of bright orange stars in the windows of homes at Christmas. How beautiful and welcoming!

typical Greenlandic yellow Christmas star that can be seen
in the windows of all houses in Greenland during December

Photo by:  Ole G. Jensen

Cheers Everyone!
♥♥
from your Chief Cracker Elf,
Gillian

Peace on Earth Christmas Crackers... Traditions

I sat under the fragrant pine trees today sifting though hundreds of pages of Christmas traditions for this year's edition of "Peace Christmas Crackers".  I came across dozens of interesting traditions that I had never heard of before. I don't want to spoil the surprises for those of you who are ordering the Peace Crackers this year but here are a couple to give you an idea of the variety ...

In the Congo, the play is the thing! Weeks before Christmas, a group in the community is selected to prepare the annual Christmas Eve pagent. These plays take part in the churches beginning early in the evening with the story of creation from Genesis, continuing on through the bible until the birth of Christ which is timed to take place as close to midnight as possible with the play finally coming to a conclusion some time around 1 a.m.! The plays are enacted with a lot of joy and fun with actors 'hamming' it up with great effect and to the delight of the audience. In some communities this is followed with singing which continues on until dawn.

"Mbotama Malamu" - Merry Christmas in the Lingala language of the Congo.

------------

In Argentina where Christmas weather is warm and there is no snow, some people like to hang cotton balls from trees to give the impression of holiday snow!

------------

In Bangladesh, Christian village men cut down scores of banana trees planting them in pairs along paths to the churches, bending over the huge leaves to form arches. Large bamboo poles drilled with holes and filled with oil are laid over top the arches and lit before church services offering a lit path.

These are just a few of the many, many traditions which will be included in this year's Peace crackers and in coming years. I am almost glad that I lost all the intitial activity pages for them as this year's edition is SO much better!PEACE CHRISTMAS CRACKERS:  http://crackers.gilliancards.com/Peace.htm
Cheers Everyone!
♥♥
from your Chief Cracker Elf,
Gillian