Christmas cracker as rival varieties came on the market. The other elements of the modern cracker—the gifts, paper hats and varied designs—were all introduced by Tom Smith's son, Walter Smith, to differentiate his product from the rival cracker manufacturers which had suddenly sprung up. Tom Smith merged with Caley Crackers in 1953. A memorial water fountain to Tom Smith and his family stands in Finsbury Square, London. The longest Christmas cracker pulling chain consisted of 1081 people and was achieved by The Harrodian School in Barnes, London, UK, on 10 December 2015. Passengers on commercial flights in the United States are explicitly
The Man Who Invented Christmas (film) The Man Who Invented Christmas (film) The Man Who Invented Christmas is a 2017 biographical drama film directed by Bharat Nalluri and written by Susan Coyne based on the book of the same name by Les Standiford. It stars Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, and Jonathan Pryce. The plot follows Charles Dickens (Stevens) at the time when he wrote "A Christmas Carol", and how Dickens' fictional character Ebenezer Scrooge (Plummer) was influenced by his real-life father, John Dickens (Pryce). It was released by Bleecker Street in the United States on 22 November 2017 and in the United Kingdom on 1 December