Christmas cracker tradition of wearing festive hats is believed to date back to Roman times and the Saturnalia celebrations, which also involved decorative headgear. Christmas crackers are also associated with Knut's parties, held in Sweden at the end of the Christmas season. The "Oxford English Dictionary" records the use of "cracker bonbons" and the pulling of "crackers" from 1847. Tradition tells of how Tom Smith of London invented crackers in 1847. He created the crackers as a development of his bon-bon sweets, which he sold in a twist of paper (the origins of the traditional sweet-wrapper). As sales of bon-bons slumped, Smith
A Christmas Tree and a Wedding A Christmas Tree and a Wedding "A Christmas Tree and a Wedding" (, "Yolka i svad'ba") is a short story written by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky published in 1848. The piece is narrated by an awkward outcast attending a Christmas party. He observes the party's guest of honour and takes special interest in one of the children. The narrator begins by mentioning to the reader that he had just been to a wedding but recalls a Christmas party that he had found more interesting. The party was given with the pretext of being a children's party, but its real purpose