Wednesday December 17th 2008

JUST CRACKERS
The critics who find my blog "mindless" will definitely hate today's entry, but I think this needs to be said. I secretly love Christmas crackers. For those who aren't familiar with them, let me give you a quick definition.The cracker was inspired by the French bon-bon. It consists of a cardboard tube covered in shiny wrapping paper. The cracker is pulled by two people, each gripping one end and pulling in opposite directions. When the cracker splits it lets out small magical bang produced by the effect of friction on a chemically impregnated card strip (similar to that used in a cap gun).However the bang is only half the fun. The cracker is full of goodies, toys, trinkets, the works!

EAT WITH A BANG!
Once the gifts had been open in my house I knew there was another treat waiting around the corner on the dining room table. My mom always put the crackers out at the top of every placemat and they would remain there until the meal was served. As we took our seats I always remember being giddy with anticipation. Hoping that grace would end and the cracker pulling would begin (sorry I was young). When it did things always seemed to get crazy, there is nothing more amusing than watching adults that were into the cups trying their damnedest to tear apart a paper wishbone. Toys a plenty would fall to the floor, and the kids would always scramble underneath to pick up the treasures. The best prize of all was included in every cracker, paperhats. The hats were always mandatory uniforms. Pretty much any of my Christmas snapshots from the past have everyone around the table wearing goofy coloured paper hats.

CRACKER CONTROVERSY

Like most things that are fun, there are always people trying to spoil the fun. Just this week a 22-year-old university student was refused a box of Christmas crackers under a Victorian explosives act after being told by check-out staff that she needed to be 'protected from herself'. Nothing quite says dangerous like the puzzle shrapnel one could be hit with after opening a cracker the wrong way. Someone check the department stores and make sure Al Qaeda isn't stocking up! I can picture it now somewhere in the hills of Afghanistan the top lieutenants of the terror group sitting around in paper hats and reading limericks to one another as they plot the fate of the world...hmmm maybe not.