Festa Crackers – a British-Brazilian Christmas cultural exchange

There are people in life who attempt things that haven’t been done before; people who put self-belief before self-doubt to try something new. Imagine how boring the world would be without those people! Well I met just such a person a couple of weeks ago:

Artur Santana: a Brazilian guy living in London who’s brought something festive back to Brazil!

Although Artur went in the opposite direction, his story isn’t so different from mine. During what was meant to be a short trip to the UK, Artur fell in love with London and decided to stay. Some time after his arrival, Artur met Frankie, a British woman who went on to become his wife. Although the first years in London weren’t easy, Artur worked hard, persevered and made a better life for himself.

As Artur got to know his adopted country, he was confronted with all kinds of strange customs: rigidly adhered-to rules on the public transport system (stand on the right, walk on the left!); drinking endless pints of ale served at room temperature; sporting events that last 5 days and end without a result, ‘watched’ by old men in panama hats who sleep for 90% of the time.

But one of Britain’s strangest customs struck Artur as rather wonderful: Christmas crackers! For the uninitiated, crackers are bon-bon inspired novelties that were invented in 1847 by a Londoner called Tom Smith – they went on to become an essential part of the British (and Commonwealth) Christmas tradition. Two participants grasp the cracker at either end and pull – the cracker breaks apart unevenly with a loud ‘crack!’ sound (caused by a teeny explosive charge inside the cracker) and whichever player has the big part has won. If this doesn’t sound odd to you yet, stick around.

This is what I’d call a ‘Classy Cracker’ – tastefully decorated and just right for the Christmas perfectionist who wants to impress the family and friends with something fancy.

The central tube of the cracker contains various ‘fun’ things to amuse you. I put the fun in inverted commas there because most Brits have memories of extremely lame and disappointing toys inside extremely cheap crackers (back in my childhood, the lameness of the toys became part of the fun). Nowadays the toys inside crackers (inside high quality crackers at least) are excellent – kids today don’t know they’re born…

As well as a toy, the cracker also contains a paper hat shaped like a crown – this is unfolded and worn on the head, usually at some point during the main Christmas meal and ideally after several festive libations have been imbibed.

The fun is not over yet – traditionally the crackers also contain a little slip of paper on which is written a Christmas themed ‘joke’ to be read out to your fellow Christmas revellers. Again, I’m employing inverted commas to indicate that (at least in this old man’s day) the jokes were so lame they went right around the Hilarity Scale from rubbish to (nearly) funny again. Groan-inducing jokes like:

What do they sing at a snowman’s birthday party?

Freeze a jolly good fellow!

and

What did Adam say to his wife on the day before Christmas?


It’s Christmas, Eve!

[Oh man, let’s stop there with the cracker jokes shall we?]

One day Artur and Frankie had an idea: to take this much-loved British tradition of Christmas crackers to Brazil. They’ve been over here on various research missions, attending trade shows and gauging public interest and the feedback has been very positive. Today, whether you’re a Commonwealth expat feeling some Yuletide saudade, or an early-adopter Brazilian who wants to wow your friends and family with this fun tradition, Festa Crackers is here.

Artur and Frankie demonstrating some Christmas cultural cross-pollination.

In the interests of research, Artur and I pulled a few crackers on the beach in Ipanema and I can tell you that things have changed – the toys are awesome and the jokes are actually quite funny! Frankie and Artur have a huge range of crackers which add a beautiful festive touch to the Christmas table.

They also have some very cool crackers that are perfect for kids’ birthday parties:

Pull these crackers to reveal awesome magic tricks for the kids.

These crackers contain balloons to be made into swans, poodles and (for the show-offs) giraffes. Perfect for a kid’s birthday party.

Now I am left wondering what Brazilian traditions would you export to the rest of the world?