The History of Christmas Crackers

Christmas crackers are a traditional Christmas favourite in the UK. They were first made in about 1845-1850 by a London sweet maker called Tom Smith. He had seen the French 'bon bon' sweets (almonds wrapped in pretty paper). He came back to London and tried selling sweets like that in England and also included a small motto or riddle in with the sweet. But they didn't sell very well.

However, one night, while he was sitting in front of his log fire, he became very interested by the sparks and cracks coming from the fire. Suddenly, he thought what a fun idea it would be, if his sweets and toys could be opened with a crack when their fancy wrappers were pulled in half.

Crackers were originally called 'cosaques' and were thought to be named after the 'Cossack' soldiers who had a reputation for riding on their horses and firing guns into the air!

When Tom died, his expanding cracker business was taken over by his three sons, Tom, Walter and Henry. Walter introduced the hats into crackers and he also travelled around the world looking for new ideas for gifts to put in the crackers.

The company built up a big range of 'themed' crackers. There were ones for bachelors and spinsters (single men and women), where the gifts were things like false teeth and wedding rings! There were also crackers for Suffragettes (women who campaigned to get women the vote), war heroes and even Charlie Chaplain! Crackers were also made for special occasions like Coronations. The British Royal Family still has special crackers made for them today!

Very expensive crackers were made such as the 'Millionaire's Crackers' which contained a solid silver box with a piece of gold and silver jewerlly inside it!

Cracker manufacturers also made large displays, such as horse drawn carriages and sleighs, for the big shops in London.

The Christmas Crackers that are used today are short cardboard tubes wrapped in colourful paper. There is normally a Cracker next to each plate on the Christmas dinner table. When the crackers are pulled - with a bang! - a colourful party hat, a toy or gift and a festive joke falls out! The party hats look like crowns and it is thought that they symbolise the crowns that might have been worn by the Wise Men.

Crackers are famous for their bad jokes

The world's longest Christmas cracker measured 63.1m (207ft) long and 4m (13ft) in diameter and was made by the parents of children at Ley Hill School and Pre-School, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, UK on 20 December 2001. Now that would be one big bang!

The biggest Christmas cracker pull was done by 1,478 people at an event organised by Honda Japan at Tochigi Proving Ground, Tochigi, Japan, on 18 October 2009. Now that would be a lot of bangs!

Good afternoon I am tired how about you

Good afternoon all, it getting on to 5pm and have to say I have had a exhausting day doing nothing much, I drove the boys to school this morning then went with Natasha to hand in the keys for her house, she is all moved in here now and my house is so cluttered and one can barely move. I would sort it our but Natasha has OCD and can't handle others going through her stuff so she wants to sort it all out herself.

Natasha is one of those people who doesn't need a lot of sleep, she gets up as early as 2am and as late as 5am she says she likes the quiet time before Blain gets up and wants her attention. Remember Natasha works nights as a cleaner, well we say nights but she starts in the afternoon and finishes anywhere between 8-12pm.

I also managed to go to the library this morning to return items and borrow more, the library is one of the best ideas around. There is no way I could afford to buy heaps of books I also borrow many recorded books, aka, books on cd which I listen to while I am driving.

Yesterday my mum gave me an early Christmas present a necklace with Scorpio on it which I really like. I also gave her a in loving memory frame for her to put a photo of her dad in and hang it on their Christmas tree, I had two and gave them both to mum but told her to give one to my brother in-law so he can put a photo of his mum in it.

I really need to sort out Christmas presents this weekend, I will be getting a layby out tomorrow and sort through it and I think I might have to return a few items as the child there were bought for is no longer interested in the item, movie, tv show that I bought the toy in, if that makes any sense if not sorry not sure how to explain what I mean.

Well I am going to post this and then go and have a relaxing bath.

Photo Wednesday

History Tuesday/Christmas Trees

The History of Christmas Trees

In Germany, the first Christmas Trees were decorated with edible things, such as gingerbread and gold covered apples. Then glass makers made special small ornaments similar to some of the decorations used today. In 1605 an unknown German wrote: "At Christmas they set up fir trees in the parlours of Strasbourg and hang thereon roses cut out of many-coloured paper, apples, wafers, gold foil, sweets, etc."

At first, a figure of the Baby Jesus was put on the top of the tree. Over time it changed to an angel/fairy that told the shepherds about Jesus, or a star like the Wise men saw.

The first Christmas Trees came to Britain sometime in the 1830s. They became very popular in 1841, when Prince Albert (Queen Victoria's German husband) had a Christmas Tree set up in Windsor Castle. In 1848, drawing of "The Queen's Christmas tree at Windsor Castle" was published in the Illustrated London News, 1848. The drawing was republished in Godey's Lady's Book, Philadelphia in December 1850 (but they removed the Queen's crown and Prince Albert's moustache to make it look 'American'!).

The publication of the drawing helped Christmas Trees become popular in the UK and USA.

In Victorian times, the tree would have been decorated with candles to represent stars. In many parts of Europe, candles are still widely used to decorate Christmas trees.

Tinsel was also created in Germany, were it was originally made from thin strips of beaten silver. But when plastic/man made tinsel was invented it became very popular as it was much cheaper than real silver and also lighter to go on the tree!

One legend says that the Christ Child first made tinsel by turning spider's webs into silver after taking pity on a poor family that couldn't afford any decorations for their Christmas Tree!

Because of the danger of fire, in 1895 Ralph Morris, an American telephonist, invented the first electric Christmas lights, similar to the ones we use today.

In 1885 a hospital in Chicago burned down because of candles on a Christmas Tree! And in 1908 insurance companies in the USA tried to get a law made that would ban candles from being used on Christmas Trees because of the many fires they had caused! So we have to say a big thank you to Ralph Morris for making Christmas safer!

Monday's Report

Good afternoon everyone, it is now Monday afternoon for me, I had a somewhat busy weekend. Friday was Dawson's end of year presentation and I as always went thankfully it was held in the morning and I was able to go and do food shopping afterwards and on Saturday I went and did other shopping and paid my layby's and such.

On Thursday just pasted I went to the appointment with the specialist over at the hospital and got no bloody answers, it is too soon to tell what is really causing the tremor although the doctor has prescribed medication that may help control it this I will pick up this afternoon or tomorrow morning. The chemist I see didn't stock it and had to order it in so that is why I am late getting it and starting it.

This morning I had to go and have three teeth filled cost us $897 for three fillings and I still need two more done next week. I don't handle seeing the dentist well, for many years now I find after the stuff they inject to numb you up wears off I start to feel unwell and get a headache and don't feel like doing much.

Over the weekend Natasha started to move a lot of her stuff in her bed is here now but the fridge, washing machine a lounge and some other stuff is still at her place her dad will move the fridge tomorrow along with the washing machine. She isn't keeping the washing machine she is just going to move it out of her house and leave it on the side of the road someone will claim it, her fridge is coming here though.

Seems I will not be having Blain here this week, since his dad and Kelli found out that I let him use his Xbox while grounded, so he is going to Jessica's place. Yesterday I was feeling betrayed this was because I felt that Kelli shouldn't had been snooping around the bedroom and she could had said something to me instead of telling his dad, also I was accused of encouraging Blain to lie to his dad and yeah I get that it seemed that way. I did tell Blain not to volunteer the information about using the Xbox, I did say don't lie if asked but if not asked don't say anything.

Also I heard from Jessica that I would not be having Blain not from Jono or Kelli or even Natasha but Jessica, Jessica went on and on about how I can't be trusted to discipline the child and how I let him do stuff he wasn't allowed to do. I have always been soft when it comes to discipline this is not new, also Kelli told me that I am not to ask for her help again I assume she means with Blain so I won't.

So yesterday I was in a right mood, I snapped at Jessica, I snapped at Tim and I felt like I had been punched in the gut, not that I have ever been punched in the gut so really don't know how that feels but you get my meaning. Kelli said she doesn't know if Jono will forgive me but you know what if he does he does if he doesn't he doesn't, I am not going to tie myself up in knots stressing over it, I can't change what has happened. It is what it is, was I wrong yeah I was, this I know.

Sometimes we do things we shouldn't do, but we can't go back and change anything and what's the point in holding grudges and stressing over stuff, Jessica said yesterday that I hold grudges, who the hell is she thinking of, being pissed off for an hour or so isn't holding a grudge, it's being pissed off for a bit that is all, by the afternoon I was over it and had moved on.

Photo Wednesday

Blame

Good morning world, yes it is still morning here, I was thinking this morning about writing a little about blame and then when I was busy reading blogs I came across Louise's blog well came across isn't right as I usually read her blog anyway she can be found here: http://dareboldly.com/2015/11/23/its-not-my-fault-can-i-blame-you

Now what made me think about blame this morning was of course two little boys who like to blame each other for every little thing although they are cousins they fight like siblings.

Anyway I was thinking this morning when I was a child was I quick to blame my siblings for things and you know what I reckon I was, why, well because I think blaming others comes naturally.

I don't know why it does it just does, even many adults are quick to blame and I wonder what it is that we are afraid of that makes us want to blame someone else for things that go wrong in our own lives. Not that blaming ourselves is ok either as at times we are quick to put ourselves down and that type of blaming is not good.

I know when my girls were little I use to tell them that I would not always take the word of one child over another without investigating more, meaning don't come and dob on your sister for no reason or to just get them into trouble as I will not stand for it. Blain and Leo have a habit of dobbing on each other just to get the other one in trouble, ok have to be honest Blain does it a bit more then Leo does. Leo seems to have a bit more empathy then Blain does.

I agree that there are cases when telling on someone is the right thing to do but we as parents and adults have to teach our young when it is right to tell and when it isn't, we also need to teach them that when they do something wrong they will be punished and the punishment will be just, I have never been a fan of telling a child you are grounded till I say other wise, ok it is ok to say that in the heat of the moment but once we have had time to calm down we should spell out to the child what their punishment is and for how long, we don't lock up people without telling them for how long, you can't throw someone in jail saying they will stay their till you say otherwise, they have to be given a time frame and I think the same applies for children when we ground a child we should say how long they are grounded for.

If you do something wrong, make a mistake or even deliberately do something wrong admit it and if you are punished for it than so be it accept your punishment and move on. That said the punishment has be fit the deed, I remember many times when the girls would get punished by Tim for something they did wrong that he would go in my opinion too far such as grounding them for far too long I use to say that what they did wrong was like pinching a lolly from a shop and he was acting like they held up a bank both deeds wrong but one worse the the other.

I feel that often now days children/teenagers commit offences and when they get arrested and go to court nothing happens they get let off sometimes with a fine they don't pay or community service which they don't do and this happens over and over again or they blame not having a stable home for their behaviour over and over again and that is a cope out. There is no accepting what they did was wrong,instead they just blame someone else and as such do not learn to deal with things.

When we blame others all the time we don't learn how to deal, to accept we screwed up and how to move on from that and not screw up again.

Yes when I was younger and I would say drop a glass and break it I would automatically say look what you made me do, when in fact no one made me do it, it just happened, now that I am older I don't stress over things like a broke glass or a split drink. I no longer feel the need to blame someone else for things that happen, I can accept it happened it may have been my fault it may not have been but really what is more important is how I deal with what has gone wrong.

I think teaching our children to not look for someone to blame is the better way to go as sometimes things happen and no one is to blame.