Party crackers are a British tradition dating back to Victorian times when a confectioner started selling sugared almonds, each with a motto and wrapped in a twisted paper package, as love tokens. One day a jet of resin from the confectioners log fire burst into flame with a loud ‘crack’. Using this idea he decided to make a log shaped package that would produce a surprise bang and inside would be an almond and a motto. It soon became a firm favourite at parties with toys, hats and jokes added to each ‘cracker’. By the end of the century it was well established as a traditional holiday custom and now each year virtually every household in the UK has crackers.
