Festive
Bon-bons

A selection of Christmas crackers
can now be viewed on our
ON-LINE store

   Dear Customers . . .

History & Tradition of the Bonbon

Englishman Tom Smith is accredited with inventing crackers or bonbons in 1847.   He created them as a development of his bon-bon sweets, which he sold in a twist of paper (the origins of the traditional sweet-wrapper).   As the sales of bonbons slumped, Smith began to come up with new promotional ideas.  His first tactic was to insert "love messages" into the wrappers.   Smith added the "crackle" element when he heard the crackle of a log he had just put on the fire.  The size had to be increased to incorporate the banger mechanism, and the sweet itself was eventually dropped, to be replaced by trinkets. 

Bonbons or crackers are typically pulled at the Christmas dinner table or at parties.  Usually pulled by two people, often with arms crossed, the cracker splits unevenly - much in the manner of a wishbone.  In one version of the bon-bon tradition, the person with the larger portion empties the contents from the tube and keeps them.  In another, each person will have their own bonbon and will keep its contents regardless of whose end they were in.  Typically these contents are a coloured paper hat, a small toy, small plastic model or other trinket and a motto, joke, riddle or piece of trivia on a strip of paper.  The paper hats, with the appearance of crowns, are usually worn when eating Christmas dinner and this tradition of wearing festive hats is believed to date back to Roman times.
- from Wikipedia

Our bonbons include a snap, paper hat, joke/riddle/trivia and a trinket/gift.  Examples of the gifts included in our bonbons are shown below.  Note that one gift only is included in each bonbon; they are distributed randomly throughout the boxes and may vary from those illustrated.  Click on the images for a better view.