Did you know that Christmas crackers were originally called 'cosaque'

This is what they were called after Tom Smith invented them in the mid 1800's. Which is French for Russian soldier.

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!

The name Cosaque was used because it referred to the banger inside the cracker which apparently sounds similar to the noise of a whip when cracked by the Cossack soldiers when riding their horses. At the end of the French Russian war this was how the French referred to the noise from the Cossacks whips.Read more on Crackers

Returning to the our beloved Christmas crackers here in the UK let me tell you about their inventor Tom Smith On a trip to France just before Christmas in 1847 Mr Smith bought some French bon-bons which at the time were sweets wrapped up in colourful papers. Back in the UK Tom Smith had a shop selling sweets and he thought the French bon-bons would be a popular Christmas sweet for his customers. He decided to add a little joke inside the bon-bons to add an extra bit of fun and to this day we still have these Christmas cracker jokes inside our crackers! Actually this isn't Tom's invention. He got the idea from the Chinese who put messages inside a cake which was made for the August Moon festival.

He then started to add small novelty gifts inside the Christmas crackers which he knew would be loved by the Victorian people. So what started as a French bon-bon wrapped in paper grew into a large Christmas cracker filled with a gift and motto.

But Tom Smith didn't stop there. He spent a number of years thinking of ways to make his Christmas crackers more interesting.

And it is said he got his final piece of inspiration when a log on his fire cracked! He then experimented for 2 years with card covered with a small amount of explosive which when rubbed together would cause the materials to ignite and explode!

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

It has been quite a journey from the simple Victorian French bon-bon to the luxury Christmas crackers you can buy today but they are still as popular today as they were 160 years ago! Know more about Christmas crackers