<P> Crackers are typically pulled at the Christmas dinner table or at parties . In one version of the cracker tradition, the person with the larger portion of cracker empties the contents from the tube and keeps them . In another, each person has their own cracker and keeps its contents regardless of whose end they were in . Typically these contents are a coloured paper hat, a small toy, a small plastic model or other trinket and a motto, a joke, and a riddle or piece of trivia on a small strip of paper . The paper hats, with the appearance of crowns, are usually worn when eating Christmas dinner . The tradition of wearing festive hats is believed to date back to Roman times and the Saturnalia celebrations, which also involved decorative headgear . </P> <P> Christmas crackers are also associated with Knut's parties . </P> <P> The Oxford English Dictionary records the use of cracker bonbons and the pulling of crackers from the early 1840s . 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 began to come up with new promotional ideas . His first tactic was to insert "love messages" into the wrappers of the sweets (cf . fortune cookies). </P> <P> Smith added the "crackle" element when he heard the crackle of a log he had just put on a fire . The size of the paper wrapper had to be increased to incorporate the banger mechanism, and the sweet itself was eventually dropped, to be replaced by a trinket; fans, jewellery and other substantial items . The new product was initially marketed as the Cosaque (i.e., Cossack), but the onomatopoeic "cracker" soon became the commonly used name, 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 . As the demand for crackers increased, Tom Smith merged with Caley Crackers in 1953 taking over their headquarters and factory in Norwich, East Anglia . </P>

Why do we have bon bons at christmas