Christmas cracker 圣誕拉炮

Christmas cracker，圣誕拉炮（圣誕爆竹），是西方人慶祝圣誕時不可或缺的一道風(fēng)景。

據(jù)說1850年倫敦的一個糖果小販制作了第一只圣誕拉炮?，F(xiàn)在流行的圣誕拉炮是由硬紙制成的一個筒，形狀如同一個特別大的水果糖。兩人一人拉一頭，紙筒斷開時發(fā)出小小的爆炸聲。拿到大頭的人獲得其中的小禮物，一般包括一頂皇冠狀的紙帽子、一個小玩具、一個寫著笑話、謎語、或是腦筋急轉(zhuǎn)彎小故事的紙條等。圣誕派對和圣誕大餐后，客人通常都會拉圣誕爆竹。

What is a Christmas Cracker?

A Christmas Cracker is a brightly coloured paper tube, twisted at both ends. A person pulls on each end of the cracker and when the cracker breaks, a small chemical strip goes “Pop” and the contents fall out.

What is inside a Christmas Cracker?

A Christmas cracker traditionally contains a paper crown, a small gift and a joke written on a slip of paper.

The gift in a cracker depends on how much you have paid for the cracker.The more you pay the better the quality of the gift.

A box of 12 crackers costing £10 could come with gifts such as a shoe horn, compact mirror, playing cards, screwdrivers, address book, tape measure, pad lock, bottle opener, tweezers, travel chess, photo frame and pen.

Who invented the Christmas Cracker?

Christmas crackers were invented by Thomas Smith in 1846.

During a visit to Paris he came across the bob-bon, a sugar almond wrapped in tissue paper (with a twist either side of the centrally placed sweet). Thomas decided to try selling similarly wrapped sweets in the lead up to Christmas in England. His bon-bons sold well at Christmas but not at other times of the year.

In the early 1850s Thomas came up with the idea of including a motto with the sweet. As many of his bon-bons were bought by men to give to women, many of the mottos were simple love poems.

In about 1860, Thomas added the banger, two strips of chemically impregnated paper that made a loud noise on being pulled apart. At first these novelties were called 'cosaques', but they soon became known as 'crackers'.

Unfortunately for Thomas, his 'cracker' idea was copied by other manufactures and so he decided to replace the sweet with a surprise gift.

When Thomas died his two sons took over the business. The paper hat was added to the cracker the early 1900s and by the end of the 1930s the love poems had been replaced by jokes or limericks.